The Works Of Sir William Jones Vol. 3

THE

WORKS

OF

SIR W:iLtrIAIVI JONES

WITH

THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR,

BY

LORD TEIGNMOUTH.

IN THIRTEEN VOLUMES.

Volume ni.

LONDON:

PBI^ITED FOR JOHN STOCKDALE, PICCAHltLY;
AND JOHN walker, PATERNOStER-ROW,

. 1807 .

CONI’ENTS

TO

THE THIRD VOLUME^

A DISCOURSE delivere<l at a Meeting of the Affatlcfc
Society, in Calcutta, on the 22 d of May, 1794*, by
the Honourable Sir John Shore - - * i

A Difcourfe on the InlHtution of a Society, for in-
quiring into the Hiftory, civil and natural, the An- • •
tiquities. Arts, Sciences, and literature, of Alia 1
The Second Anniverfary Difcourfe, delivered 2 Uh of

February, 1785 - - - . 10

The Third Anniverfary Difcourfe, on the Hindus, de-
livered 2 d of February, 1786 - - 24

The Fourth Anniverfary Difcourfe, on the Arabs, de-
livered 15th February, 1787 ... 47

The Fifth Anniverfary Difcourfe, on the Tartars, de-
livered 21 ft February, 1788 - - 71

The Sixth Anniverfary Difcourfe, on the Perfiaus, de-
livered 18th February, 1789 - - 193

The Seventh Anniverfary Difcourfe, on the Chinefe,

delivered 25th February, 1790 ^ - - 137

The Eighth Anniverfary Difcourfe, on the Borderers,
Mountaid^ers, and Iflanders of Ah^J delivered 24th

1791 ic2

VOL. I.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

The Ninth Anniverfary Difcourfe, on the Origin and
Families of Nations, delivered 2;5d February, 1792 185

The Tenth Anniverfary Difcourfe, on Afiatick Hif-

tory, civil and natural, delivered 2<?th February, 3 793 205

The Eleventh Anniverfary Difcourfe, on the Philo-

fophy of the Afiaticks, delivered 20th February, 1794* 229

A Diflertation on the Orthography of Afiatick Words

in Roman Letters - . - - 253

/On the Gods of Greece, Italy, and India - 319

A

DISCOURSE

DELIVERED AT A MEETING OF THE

ASIATICK SOCIETY,

IN CALCWTTA,

ON THE

TWENTY-SECOND OF MAY, 1704.

BY THE HONOURABLE

SIR JOHN SHORE, BART*

PRESIDENT,

* Since Lord Teignmouth»

L

B

A

DISCOURSE, &c.

GENTLEMEN,.

If I had confulted m]^ competency only, for
the ftation which your choice has conferred
4ipon me, I muft v/ithout hefitation have d^
dined the honour of being the Prefident of this
Society; and although I moft cheerfully ac-
cept your invitation, with every inclination to
aflift, as far as my abilities extend, in pro-
moting the laudable views of your afTociation*
I muft ftill retain the confcioufnefs of thofe dif-
qualifications, which you have been pleafed to
ovejlook.

It was lately our boaft to poflefs a Pre-
fident, whofe name, talents, and charader,
would have been honourable to any inftitution ;
it is now our misfortune to lament, that Sir
•William Jones exifts, but in the affections of his
friends, and in the efteem, veneration, and regret
of all.

I cannA, I flatter myfelf, offer a more grate-
fu^ tribute ^o the Society, tha’Q-by making his
chaiuder th^ fubject of my add^efs to you ;

■■ '5 2

[ iv ]

and if in the delineation of it, fondnefs or affec-
tion for the man fhould appear blended with
my reverence for his genius and abilities, in the
fympathy ofyour feelings I fhall find my apology.

To define with accuracy the variety, value,
andvsxtent of his literary attainments, requires
more learning than I pretend- to poffefs, and
I am therefore to folicit your indulgence tor
an imperfect tketch, mther than expert your
-approbation for a complete defcription of the
talents, and knowledge, of your late and la-
mented Prefident.

Tfhall begin with mentioning his wonderful
capacity for the acquifition of languages, which
has never been excelled. In Greek and Roman
‘ literature, his early proficiency was the fubje<3;
of admiration and applaufe ; and knpwledge,
of whatever nature, once obtained by him, was
ever afterwards progreflive. The more elegant
dialects of modern Europe, the French, the
Spanijh, and the Italian, he fpoke and wrote
with the greateft fluency and precifion ; and
the German and Portuguefe were familiar to
him. At an early period of life his application
to Oriental literature commenced ; he ftudied
the Hebrew with eafe and fuccefs, and many of
the molf learned AJiaticks have thj^ candour to
avow, that his /Knowledge of AraMck and ^er~
Jian was _aS accurate and ext enfiye n s-dlgfT own ;

C V ]

he was alfo converfant in the Turkijh idiom,
and the Chinefe had even attrafted his notice,
fo far as to induce him to learn the radical
charadters of that language, with a view per-
haps to farther improvements. It was to be
expedled, after his arrival in India ^ tb^t/’ he
would eagerly ■ embrace the opportunity of
^making himfelf mailer of the Sanfcrit ; and
the moll enlightened profelTors of the dodlrines
of Brahma confefs with pride, delight, and-
A'urprife, that his knowledge of their facrcd
Jdialedl was moll critically corredl and prqfpund.
The Pandits, who were in the habit of attencT-
ing him, when I faw them after his death, at a
puhHc Durbar, could neither fupprefs their tears
for his lofs, nor find terms to exprefs their ail-*
miration, at the wonderful progrefs hie had made
in their fciences.

Before the expiration of his twenty-fecond
year, he had completed his Commentaries on
the Poetry of the AJiaticks, although a confider-
able time afterwards elapfed before their publi-
cation ; and this work, if no other monument of
his labours exilled, would at once furnilh proofs
of his confummate' Ikill in the Oriental dialedls,
of his proficiency in thofe of Rome and Greece,
of talle andWudition far beyond his years, and
of Ulents anH application withouf example.

[ v! ]

But the judgement of Sir Willmm Jones
was too difcerning to confider language in any
other light than as the key of fcience, and
he would have defpifed the reputation of a
mere linguift. Knowledge and truth, were the
obj^of all his ftudies, and his ambition was
to be ufeful to mankind; with thefe viewsj he
extended his refearches to all languages, nations,
and times.

Such were the motives that induced him to
propofe to the Government of this country,
what he juftly denominated a work of national
utility and importance, the compilation of a co-
pious digeft of Hmdu and Mahommednn Law,
i\OTa.Sanfcrit and Arabick originals, with an oiler •
of his fervices tp fuperintend the compilation,
and with a promife to tranflate it. He bad
forefeen, previous to his departure from Europe^
that without the aid of fuch a work, the wife 'iind
benevolent intentions of the legiflature of Great
Britain, in leaving, to a certain extent, the na-
tives of thefe provinces in pofleffion of their
own laws, could not be completely fulfilled ;
and his experience, after a Ihort refidence in
India, confirmed what his fagacity had antici-
pated, that without principles to refer to, in a
language familkr to the judges o^ the courts,
adjudications nmongft the natiyes muft too

[ vii ]

often be fubjed: to an uncertain and erroneous
expoAtion, or wilful miAnterpretation of their
laws.

To the fuperintendance of this work, which
was immediately undertaken at his fuggeftion,
he affiduoufly devoted thofe hours whic^-ilC"
could fpare from his profeffional duties. After
4*^tcing the plan of the digeft, he prefcribed
its arrangement and niode of execution, and
feledted from the moft learned Hindus and
jMahommedans At perfons for the taft of com-
piling it ; Aattered by his attention, and en-
couraged by his applaufe, the Pandits' ‘profe-
cuted their labours with cheerful zeal, to a
fajtisfactory concluAon. The Molavees have alfo
nea^y Aniflied their portion of the work, but
muft ever regret, that the ppomifed tranAation,
as well as the meditated preliminary diAertation,
have been fruftrated by that decree, which ’ fo
o^ten intercepts the performance of human
purpofes.

During the courfe of this compilation, and
as auxiliary to it, he was led to ftudy the
works of Menu, reputed by the Hindus to be
the oldeft, and holieft of legiAatures ; and find-
ing them to comprize a fyftem of religious and
civil duties, and of law in all its branches, fo
comprehenfive and minutely exa£t, that it might
be confidered as the Inftitutes bf Hipdu law, he

[ via ]

prefented a tranflation of them to the Govem-
ment of Bengal. During the fame period,
deeming no labour exceffive or fuperfluous that
tended, in any refped, to promote the welfare
or happinefs of mankind, he gave the public an
verfion of the Arabick text of the Sir A-
JIYAH, or Mahommedan Law of Inheritan,ce,
with a Commentary. He had already publiftrcd
in England^ a tranflation of a Tradt on the fame
fubje£t, by another Mahommedan Lawyer, con-
taining, as his own words exprefs, “ a lively
and elegant epitome of the law of Inheritance,
according to Zaid.”

To thefe learned and important works, fo
far out of the road of amufement, nothijig
pould have engaged his application, but \hat
defire which he ever profeflTed, of rendering his
knowledge ufeful to his nation, and beneficial to
the inhabitants of thefe provinces.

Without attending to the chronological order
of their publication, I fliall briefly recapitulate
his other performances in Afiatick Literature, as
far as ray knowledge and recolleilion of them
extend.

The vanity and petulance of Anquetil du
Perron, with his illiberal reflexions on fome
of the learned members of the Univerfity of
Oxford^ extorted from him a letter, in the French
language^ which has been admired for accurate

[ ix ]

criticifm, juft fatire, and elegant compofition.
A regard for the literary reputation of his coun-
try, induced him to tranflate, from a Perjian
original into French^ the life of Nadir Shah,
that it might not be carried out of England, with
a reflection, that no perfon had been foupd'Th
the Britifh dominions capable of tranflating
•ic. The ftudents of Perfian literature mull
ever be grateful to him, for a grammar of
that language, in which he has Ihown the,
poflibility of combining tafte, and elegance,
with the precifion of a grammarian ; and
every admirer of Arabick poetry, mull ac-
knowledge his obligations to him, for an
^nglijh verfion of the feven celebrated poems, fo
we^d known by the name of Moallakat^ from
the diftinCtion to which their ex*^llence had
entitled them, of being fufpended in the
terpple of Mtcca: I Ihould fcarcely think it of
-■importance to mention, that he did not difdain
the office of Editor of a Sanfcrit and Perfian
work, if it did not afford me an opportunity
of adding, that the latter was publiffied at his
own expence, and was fold for the benefit of
infolvent debtors. A fimilar^ application was
made of the produce of the Sirajiyah.

Of his lighter produ«ftions, the elegant
amufements of his leifure hours, comprehend-
ing hymns on the Hindu mythology, poems

[ ^ ]

confifting chiefly of tranflations from the
AJiatick languages, and the verfion of Sacon-
TALA, an ancient Indian drama, it would be
unbecoming to fpeak in a ftyle of importance
which he did not himfelf annex to them. They
fhd^. the activity of a vigorous mind, its ferti-
lity, its genius, and its tafte. Nor fhall I parti-
cularly dwell on the difcourfes addrelTed to this
Society, which we have all perufed or heard,
■4?r on the other learned and interefting diflerta-
tions, which form fo large, and valuable a por-
tion of the records of our Refearches j let us
• *

lament, that the fpirit which dictated them
is to us extindt, and that the voice to which
we liftened with improvement, and raptur^r^,.
will be heard by us no more. *

But I cannot pafs over a paper, which has
fallen into my pofleflion fince his demife, in
the hand-writing of Sir William Jones him-
felf, entitled Desiderata, as more expla-
natory than any thing I can fay, of the
comprehenfive views of his enlightened mind.
It contains, as a perufal of it will fliow, what-
ever is moft curious, important, and attainable
in the fciences and hiftories Mf India, Arabia,
China, and Tart ary ; fubjeds, which he had
alnfcady moft amply difeufled in the difqui-
fltions which he' laid before the Society.

[ xi ]

DESIDERATA.

INDIA.

1 . — The Ancient Geography of India, 8
from the Puranas.

2. — A Botanical Defcription of Indian Plants,
from the Cofhas, &c.

3. — A Grammar of the Sanfcrit Language,
from Panini, &c.

4. — A Dictionary of the Sanfcrit Language,
from thirty-two original Vocabularies- and
Nirudi.

5. — On the Ancient Mulic of the Indians.

6. — On the Medical Subftances of India,
-a.:d the Indian Art of Medicine.

7. — On the Philofophy of the Ancient Trf-
dians. .

8. — ATranflation of the Veda.

9. — On Ancient Indian Geometry, Aftro-
nomy, and Algebra.

10. — A Tranflation of the Puranas.

11. — ATranflation of the Mahabbarat and
Ramayan.

12. — On the Indian Theatre, &c. &c. &c.

13. — On the fndian Conftellations, with their
Mythology, from the Puranas.

14. — The Hiftory of India before the Ma-
hommedan conqueft, from the Sanfcrit-Caflrmir
Kiftories.

C xii 3

ARABIA.

15. — The Hiftory of Arabia before Ma-
hommed.

16. — A Tranflatlon of the Hamafa.

— A Tranflation of Hariri.

18. — A Tranflation of the Facahatul Khu-
lafa.

Of the Cafiah.

PERSIA.

1 — The Hiftory of PeiTia from Authorities

in Sanfcrit, Arabick, Greek, Turkiih, Perfian,
ancient and modern.

Firdaufi’s Khofrau nama.

20. — The five Poems of Nizami, tranflated in
profe.

A Di£tionary of pure Perfian. Je-

hangire.

CHINA.

2 1 . — A Tranflation of the Shi-king.

22. — The text of Can-fu-tfu verbally tranf-j
lated.

'tartary.

23. — A Hiftory of the Tartar Nations,

chiefly of the Moguls and Oth ^

Turkifli and Perfian.

[ xiii ]

We are not authorifed to conclude, that he
had himfelf formed a determination to complete
the works which his genius and knowledge had
thus Iketched •, the tafk feems to require a period,
beyond the probable duration of any human life ;
but we, who had the happinefs to know Sir
William Jones, who were witnefles of his inde-
fatigable perfeverance in the purfuit of know-
ledge, and of his ardour to accomplilh whatever
he deemed important ; who faw the extent of
his intelle6lual powers, his wonderful attain-
ments in literature and fcience, and the faci-
lity with which all his compofitions wefe^made,
cannot doubt, if it had pleafed Providence to
protract the date of his exiftence, that he would
have ably executed much, of what he had fo
extenfively planned. •

I hWe hitherto principally confined my
difcourfe to the purfuits of our late Prefident
5h Oriental literature, which, from their extent,
might appear to have occupied all his time ;
but they neither precluded his attention to pro-
feflional ftudies, nor to fcience in general :
amongft his publications in Europe, in polite
literature, exclufiye of various compofitions in
profe and verfe, I find a tranflation of the
fpeeches of Is^us, with a learned comment ;
?nd, in law, an Eflay on the Law of Bailments ;

V

[ xiv ]

upon the fubjed of this laft work, I cannot
deny myfelf the gratification of quoting the fen-
timents of a celebrated hiftorian : “ Sir William
“ Jones has given an ingenious and rational
“ eflay on the law of Bailments. He is per-
-*thaps the only lawyer equally converfant with
“ the year books of Wejiminjiery the commen-
“ taries of Ulpian, the Attic pleadings of
“ Is^us, and the fentences of Arabian and

Perjian Cadhis."

His profeflional ftudies did not commence
before his twenty-fecond year, and I have his
own authority for aflerting, that the firll book
of Englijh jurifprudence which he ever ftudied,
was Fortescue’s eflay in praife of the laws
of England.

Of the ability and confcientious integrity,
•with which he difcharged the fundlicns of a
Magiftrate, and the duties of a Judge of the
Supreme Court of Judicature in this fettlement,
the public voice and public regret bear ample
and merited teftimony. The fame penetration
which marked his fcientific refearches, diftin-
guiflied his legal inveftigations and decifions ;
and he deemed no inquiries burthenfome, which
had for their obje<3; fubftantial juflice under the
rules of law.

His addrefles to the jurors, are not lefs dif-

[ ]

tinguifhed for philanthropy, and liberality of
fentiment, than for juft expofitions of the law,
perfpicuity, and elegance of didlionj and his
oratory was as captivating as his arguments were
convincing.

In an epilogue to his commentaries on Jfiatick
poetry, he bids farewell to polite literature,
without relinqiiilhing his affeiftion for it ; and
concludes with an intimation of his intention to
ftudy law, exprefled in a wilh, which we now
know to have been prophetic.

. Mihi lit, oro, non inutilis toga,

Nec indiferta lingua, nec turpis manus !

I have already enumerated attainments and
works, which, from their diverlity and extent,
feem fer beyond the capacity of the moft en-
larged minds ; but the catalogue may yet be
;augmented. To a proficiency in the languages of
Greece^ Rome, and Asia^ he added the knowledge
of the philofophy of thofe countries, and of every
thing curious and valuable that had been taught in
them. The dodrines of the Academy t the Lyceum^
or the Portico^ were not more familiar to him
than the tenets ot’ the Fedasy the myfticifm of
the Stt^s, or the religion of the ancient Perjians ;■
'and whilft with a kindred genius he perufed witfi

[ xvi 5

rapture the heroic, lyric, or moral compofitions,
of the moft renowned poets of Greece, Rome,
and he could turn with equal delight and
knowledge, to the fublime fpeculations, or ma-
thematical calculations, of Barrow and New-
ton. With them alfo, he profefled his con-
viction of the truth of the Chrijiian religion,
and he juftly deemed it no inconfiderable ad-
vantage, that his refearches had corroborated the
multiplied evidence of revelation, by confirming
the Mofaick account of the primitive world. We
all recollect, and can refer to, the following fen-
timents'in his eighth anniverfary difcourfe.

“ Theological inquiries are no part of my
“ prefent fubjeCl ; but I cannot refrain from
“ adding, that the collection of traCts, which
“ we call from their excellence the Scriptures,
“ contain, independently of a divine "origin,
“ more true fublimity, more exquifite beauty,
“ purer morality, more important hiftory, an^
“ finer ftrains both of poetry and eloquence,
“ than could be collected within thp fame
“ compafs from all other books, that were
“ ever compofed in any age, or in any
“ idiom. The two parts, of which the
Scriptures corifift, are connected by a chain
“ of compofitions, which bear no refemblance
in form or ftyle to any th?it can be produced

[ xvii ]

“ from the ftores of Greciariy Indian^ Ferjian^ or
“ even Arabian learning; the antiquity of thofe
“ compofitions no man doubts, and the un-
“ ftrained application of them to events long fub-
fequent to their publication, is a folid ground
“ of belief, that they were genuine predidions,

“ and confequently infpired.”

There were .in truth few fciences, in which
he had not acquired confiderable proficiency;
in moft, his knowledge was profound. The
theory of mufic was familiar to him ; nor had
he neglcded to make himfelf acquainted -with
the interefting difcoverics lately made in chy-
miftry j and I have heard him alTert, that his
admiration of the ftrudure of the human frame,
had induced him to attend for a feafon to a courfe
of anatomical ledures delivered by his friend, the*''
celebrated Hunter.

His laft and favourite purfuit, was the ftudy
of Botany^ which he originally began under the
confinement of a fevere and lingering diforder,
which with moft minds, would have proved a
difqualification from any application. It confti-
tuted the principal amufement of his leifure
hours. In the arrangements of Linnaeus he
difcovered fyftem* truth, and.fcience, which
never failed to captivate and engage his atten-
tion ; and from the proofs which he has
VOL. I. c

[ xviii ]

exhibited of his progrefs in Botany^ we may
conclude that he would have extended his dif*
coveries in that fcience. The lafl: compolition
which he read in this Society, was a defeription
of feled Indian plants, and 1 hope his Executors
will allow us to fulfil his intention of publilhing
it, as a number in our Refearches.

It cannot be deemed ufelefs or fuperfluous
to inquire, by what arts or method he was
enabled to attain to a degree of knowledge
almoft univerfal, and apparently beyond the
powers of man, during a life little exceeding
fortyfcfeven years.

The faculties of his mind, by nature vfgorous,
were improved by conftant excrcife; and his
memory, by habitual pradlice, had acquired a
capacity of retaining whatever had once been
imprefled upon it. To an unextinguilhed ardour
for univerfal knowledge, he joined a perfe-
verance in the purfuit of it, which fubdued all
obftacles ; his ftudies began with the dawn, and
during the intermiflions of profeflional duties,
were continued throughout the day ; refledion
and meditation ftrengthened and confirmed
what induftry and inveftigation had accumu-
lated. It was a* fixed principle with him, from
which he never voluntarily deviated, not to be
deterred by any difficulties that were fur-

[ xix I

jnountal)le, from profecuting to a fuccefsfiil
termination, what he ha4 once deliberately
undertaken.

But what appears to me more particularly to
have enabled him to employ his talents fo much
to his own and the public advantage, was
the regular allotment of his time to particular
occupations, and a fcrupulous adherence to the
diftribution which he had fixed ; hence, all his
ftudies were purfued without interruption or
confufion : nor can I here omit remarking, what
may probably have attracted your obfervation
as well as mine, the candour and complacency
with which he gave his attention to all perfons,
of whatfoever quality, talents, or education ; he
juftly concluded, that curious or important in- >
■formation, might be gained even from the illi- '
terate ; and wherever it was to be obtained, he
fought and feized it.

Of the private and focial virtues of our
lamented Prefident, our hearts are the beft
records; to you, who knew him, it cannot
be neceflary for me to expatiate on the in-
dependence of his integrity, his humanity,
probity, or benevolence, which every living
creature participated ; on the affability of his
converfation and manners, or his modeft un-
affuming deportment : nor need I remark, that
he was totally free from pedantry, as well as

c 2

t ]

from arrogance and felf-fufficiency, which fome-
times accompany and difgrace the greateft abi-
lities; his prefence was the delight of every
fociety, v<rhich his converfation exhilarated and
improved ; and the public have not only to
lament the lofs of his talents and abilities, but
that of his example.

To him, as the founder of our Inftitution,
and wliilft he lived, Us firmeft fupport, our
reverence is more particularly due ; inftrufted,
animated, and encouraged by him, genius was
called forth into exertion, and modeft merit
was .excited to diftinguUh itfelf. Anxious for
the reputation of the Society, he was indefatiga-
ble in his own endeavours to promote it, whilft
he cheerfully aflifted thofe of others. In lofing
him, we have not only been deprived of our
brighteft ornament, but of a guide apd patron,
on whofe inftrudions, judgment, and candour,
we could implicitly rely.

But it will, I truft, be long, very long, before
the remembrance of his virtues, his genius, and
abilities, lofe that influence over the members of
this Society, which his living example had
maintained ; and if previous to his demife he
had been aiked, by what pofthumous honours
or attentions we could beft fliow our refpedt
for his memory ? I may venture to aflfert he
would have replied, “ By exerting yourfelveis

[ xxi ]

“ to fupport the credit of the Society applying
to it, perhaps, the dying wifli of father Paul,
“ efto pcrpetna !”

In this wifh we mufl. all concur, and with it,
J clofe this addrefs to you.

THE WORKS

OF

SIR WILLIAM JONES.

A DISCOURSE ON THE INSTITUTION OF A

SOCIETY,

FOR INQUIRING INTO T-IE

HISTORY, CIVIL AND NATURAL, THE ANTHUITIES,- 4RTS.
SCIENCES, AND LITERATURE, OF

A S I y\.

BY THE PRESIDENT.

GENTLEMEN,

When I was at fea laft Auguft, on my voyage
to this country, which I had long and ardently
defired to vifit, I found one evening, on in-
fpcfting the obfervations of the day, that India
lay before us, and Perjia on our left, whilft a
breeze from Arabia blew nearlj- on oup Hern.
A fituation fo pleafing in itfelf, and to me fo new,
could not fail to awaken a train of reflexions in
a mind, which had early -beenr accuftoraed to

2

THE PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE.

contemplate with delight tlie eventful hiftorles
and agreeable fictions of this eaftern world. It
gave me inexpreflible pleafure to find myfelf in
the midft of fo noble an amphitheatre, almoft
encircled by the vafi; regions of AJia^ which has
ever been efieemed the nurfe of fciences, the in-
ventrefs of delightful and ufeful arts, the feene
of glorious actions, fertile in the productions
of human genius, abounding in natural wonders,
and infinitely diverfified in the forms of religion
and government, in the laws, manners, cuftoms,
and languages, as well as in the features and
complexions, of men. I could not help remark-
ing, how important and extenfive a field was
yet unexplored, and hoM'^ many folid advantages
unimproved ; and when I confidered, with pain,
*that, in this fluctuating, imperfeCl, and limited
condition of life,' fuch inquiries and improve-
ments could only be made by the united efforts
of many, who are not eafily brought, without
fome prefling inducement or ftrong impulfe, to
converge in a common point, I confoled myfelf
with a hope, founded on opinions which it
might have the appearance of flattery to mention,
that, if in any country or community, fuch an
union could be effected, it wds among my coun-
trymen in Bengal, with fome of whom I already
had, and with mofl: was defirous of having, the
pleafure of being intimately acquainted.

THE PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE.

S

You have realized that hope, gentlemen, and
even anticipated a declaration of my wifhes,
by your alacrity in laying the foundation of a
fociety for inquiring into the hiftory and an-
tiquities, the natural produdions, arts, fciences,
and literature of Afia. I may confidently foretej,
that an inftitution fo likely to afford entertain-
ment, and convey knowledge, to mankind, will
advance to maturity by flow, yet certain, de-
grees; as the Royal Society, which at firll was
only a meeting of a few literary friends at Oxford^
rofe gradually to that fplendid zenith, at which a
Halley was their fecretary, and a Newton their
prefid ent.

Although it is my humble opinion, that, in
order to enlure our fuccefs and permanence,
we muft keep a middle courfe between a langukV
rcmilfncfs, and an over zealoiK activity, and that
the tree, which you have aufpicioufly planted,
will produce fairer bloflfoms, and more exquifite
fruit, it it be not at firft expofed to too great a
glare of funfliine, yet I take the liberty of fub-
mitting to your confideration a few general ideas
on the plan of our lociety ; afluring you, that,
• whether you rejed or approve them, your cor-
redion will give, me both plejifure and inftruc-
tion, as your flattering attentions have already
conferred on me the higheft honour.

It is your defign, I conceive,-to t^ke an ample

4

THE /RELIMINAiii’ jJiSCOuRlSi.

fpace for your learned inveftigations, bounding
them only by the geographical limits of yijia ;
fo that, conficlering Hindujlan as a centre, and
turning your eyes in idea to the North, you
have on your right, many important kingdoms
iii *he Eaftern peninfula, the ancient and won-
derful empire of China with all her Tartarian
dejicndcncies, and that of Japany with the duller
of precious iflands, in which many fmgular cu-
rioilties have too long been concealed : before
< 1 lies that prodigious chain of mountains,
v\ i lich formerly perhaps were a barrier againfl:
the violence of the fea, and beyond them the
very intcrefting country of Tihety and the vail
regions of Tartary, from which, as from the
Trojan horfe of the poets, have iflued fo many
confummate warriors, whofe domain has ex-
tended at lead from the banks of the IliJJus to
the mouths of the Ganges: on your left are the
beautiful and celebrated provinces of Iran or ;
Perjia, the unmeafured, and perhaps unmeafur-
able deferts of Arabia, and the once flourilhing
kingdom of Temen, with the pleafant illes that
the Arabs have fubdued or colonized; and farther
weftward, the Afiatick dominions of the Turkijls
fultans, whofe moon feems approaching rapidly
to its wane. — By this great circumference, the
field of your ufeful refearches will be inclofed ;
fiut, fince E^^?.ha<J»nquellionably an old con-

THE PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE.

5

nedion with this country, if not with nee

the language and literature of the ^l>yjfimans
bear a manifeft affinity to thofe of fince

the Arabian arms prevailed along the African
coall of the Mediterranean^ and even ere£ted a
powerful dynafty on the continent of Europe
you may not be difpleafed occafionally to follow
the ftreams of AJiaiick learning a little beyond
its natural boundary ; and, if it be neceflary or
convenient, that a ffiort name or epithet be given
to our fociety, in order to diftinguiffi it in the
world, that of AJiatick appears both claffical and
proper, whether we conlider the place or the
objedl of the inftitution, and preferable to On-
entalf which is in truth a word merely relative,
and, though commonly ufed in FMrope, con-
veys no very diftindt idea. • •

If now it be afked, what afire the intended ob-
je£ts o^ our inquiries within thefe fpacious limits,
we anfwer, MAN and NATURE; whatever
is performed by the one, or produced by the
other. Human know^ledge has been elegantly
anal y fed according to the three great faculties of
the mind, memory, r^ajon, and imagination^ which
we conftantly find employed in arranging and re-
taining, comparing and diftingqifliing, combining
and diverfifying, the ideas, which we receive
through our fenfes, or acquire by reflection ;
hence the three main blanches of learning are

6

THE PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE.

hijiory^ fcience^ and art: the firft comprehends
either an account of natural productions, or the
genuine records of empires and ftates ; the fe-
cond embraces the whole circle of pure and mix-
ed mathematicks, together with ethicks and law,
as, far as they depend on the reafoning faculty ;
and the tliird includes all the beauties of imagery
and the charms of invention, difplayed in modu-
lated language, or reprefented by colour, figure,
or fjund.

Agreeably to this analyfis, you will inveftigatc
whatever is rare in the flupendous fabrick of na-
ture, will correct the geography of AJia by new
obfervations and difcoveries ; will trace the an-
nals, and even traditions, of thofe nations, who
from time to time have peopled or defolated it ;
aiid- will bring to light their various forms of
government, with tiieir inftitutions civil and re-
ligious ; you will examine their improvements
and methods in arithmetick and geometry, in
trigonometry, menfuration, mechanicks, opticks,
altronomy, and general phyficks ; their fyftems
of morality, grammar, rhetorick, and dialec-
tick ; their {kill in c hirur gery and medicine,
and their advancement, whatever it may be,
in anatomy and chymiftry.a To this you
will add relearches into their agriculture,
manufadures, trade ; and, whilft you inquire
"Wdth pleafure into their mufick, architecture.

THE PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE.

7

painting, and poetry, will not negledt thofe in*
ferior arts, by which the comforts and even ele«
gances of focial life are fupplied or improved.
You may obferve, that I have omitted their lan-
guages, the diverfity and difficulty of which are
a fad obftacle to the progrefs of ufcful knotw^-
ledge ; but I have ever confidered languages as
the mere inftruments of real learning, and think
them improperly confounded with learning
Itfelf : the attainment of them is, however, in-
difpenfably neceflary ; and if to the Perjian,
Armenian, Turkijh, and Arabick, could be added
not only the Sanfcrit, the treafures of which we
may now hope to fee unlocked, but even the
Chinefe, Tartarian, JapaneJe, and the various
infular dialects, an immenfe mine would then
be open, in which we might labour with equal
delight and advantage. •

Having fubmitted to you thefe imperfect
thoughts on the limits and objedts of our future
fociety, I requeft your permiffion to add a few
hints on the conduct of it in its prefent imma-
ture ftate.

Lucian begins one of his fatirical pieces
againft hiftorians, with declaring that the only
true propofition in his work was, that it ffiould
contain nothing true ; and perhaps it may be ad-
vifable at firft, in order to prevent any difference
of fentiment on particular points not immediately

8

THE PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE.

before u«, to eftablifli but one rule, namely, to
have no rules at all. This only I mean, that,
in the infancy of any fociety, there ought to be
BO confinement, no trouble, no expenfe, no un-
neceflary formality. Let us, if you pleafe, for
The prefent, have weekly evening meetings in
this hall, for the purpofe of hearing original
papers read on fuch fubjedts, as fall within the
circle of our inquiries. Let all curious and
learned men be invited to fend their trails to
our fecretary, for which they ought immediately
to receive our thanks; and if, towards the end
of each year, we Ihould be fupplied with a
fufficiency of valuable materials to fill a volume,
let us prefent our AJiatick mifcellany to the lite-
rary world, who have derived fo much pleafure
find information from the agreeable work of
Kcempfer, than which we can fcarce propofe a
better model, that they will accej)t with eager-
nefs any frelh entertainment of the fame kind.
You will not perhaps be difpofed to admit mere
tranflations of confiderable length, except of fuch
unpublifhed effays or treatifes as may be tranf-
mitted to us by native authors; but, whether
you will enrol as members any number of learn-
ed natives, you will hereafter decide, with many
other queftions as they happen toarife; and you
will think, I prefume, that all queftions Ihould
be decided on a* ballot, by a majority of two

THE PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE. 9

thirds, and that nine members fliould be re-
quifite to conftitute a board for fuch decifions.
Thefe points, however, and all others I fubmit
entirely, gentlemen, to your determination, hav-
ing neither wilh nor pretenfion to claim any
more than my fingle right of fufFrage. One
thing only, as eflential to your dignity, I re-
commend' with. earneftnefs, on no account to
admit a new member, who has not expreffed a
voluntary delire to become fo ; and in that cafe,
you will not require, I fuppofe, any other qua-
lification than a love of knowledge, and a zeal
for the promotion of it.

Your inftitution, I am perfuaded, will ripen of
itfelf, and your meetings will be amply fup-
plied with interefting and amufing papers, as
foon as the object of your inquiries lhall "be*
generally known. There are* it may not be de-
licate to name them, but there are many, from
whofe important ftudies I cannot but conceive
high expectations ; and, as far as mere labour
will avail, I fincerely promife, that, if in my
allotted fphere of jurifprudence, or in any intel-
lectual excurfion, that I may have leifure to
■make, I fliould be fo fortunate as to colleCt, by
accident, either firuits or flowers, which may
feem valuable or plcafing, I fliall offer my humble
Nezr to your fociety with as much refpeCtful zeal
as to the greatefl: potentate on earth.

THE SECOND

ANNIVERSARY DISCQURSE,

DELIVERED 24 FEBRUARY, i:si.

BY

THE PRESIDENT.

r;ENTLEMEN,

If tFe Deity of the Hindus^ by whom all theit
juft requefts are believed to be granted with fin-
gular indulgence, had propofed laft year to gra-
tify my warmeft wiflies, I could have defired
nothing more ardently than the fuccefs of your
•’inftitution ; becaufe I can deftre nothing in pre-
ference to the general good, which your plan
feems calculated to promote, by bringing to
light many ufeful and interefting tradfs, which,
being too fliort for feparate publication, might
lie many years concealed, or, perhaps, irrecover-
ably perifli: my wifhes are accomplifhed, with-

• • A-. ■ ’ / ,

out an invocation to Camadhe nu; and your
Society, having already pafled its infant ftate,
is advancing to /naturity with every mark of a
healthy and robuft conftitution. When I reflecft,
indeed, on the variety of fubjedts, which have
been difcufled before you, concerning the hif-

SECOND ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE. ll

toiy, laws, manners, arts, and antiquities of ^Jia,
I am unable to decide whether my pleafure or
my furprife be the greater ; for I will not dif-
femble, that your progrefs has far exceeded my
expectations ; and, though we muft feriou/ly
deplore the lofs of thofe excellent men, who
have lately departed from this Capital, yet there
is a profpeCt ftill of large contributions to your
Hock of AJiatick learning, which, I am per-
fuaded, will continually increafe. My late jour-
ney to Benares has enabled me to alTure you,
that many of your members, who refide at a
diftance, employ a part of their leifure. in pre-
paring additions to your archives ; and, unlefs I
am too fanguine, you will foon receive light from
them on feveral topicks entirely new in the re-
publick of letters. * *

It Yfas principally v/ith a defign to open
fources of fuch information, that I long had
meditated an expedition up the Ganges during
the fufpenfion of my bufinefs j but, although I
had the fatisfadlion of vifiting two ancient feats
of Hindu fuperftition and literature, yet, illncfs
having detained me a confiderable time in the
way, it was not in my power to continue in
them long enough to purfue my inquiries ; and
I left them, as .^ne as is feigned to have left the
ihades, when his guide made him recolIeCt the
rf irrevocable tint el with a curiofity

• VOL. I. D • •

12

THE PRESIDENT’S SECOND

raifed to the height, and a regret not eafy to be
defcribed.

Whoever travels in Afia^ efpecially if he be
converfant with the literature of the countries
through which he palfes, muft naturally remark
- the fuperiority of European talents : the obferva-
tion, indeed, is at-leaft as old as Alexander j
and, though we cannot agree with the fage pre-
ceptor of that ambitious Prince, that “ the AJi-
aiicks are born to be Haves,” yet the Athenian
poet Teems perfe<Aly in the right, when he re-
prefents Europe as a Jovereign Princejs, and AJia
as her Handmaid: but, if the miftrefs be tran-
fcendently majeftick, it cannot be denied that
the attendant has many beauties, and fome ad-
vantages peculiar to hcrfelf. The ancients were
ttccuftomed to pronounce panegyricks on their
ow'ii countrymen ‘at the expenfe of all other
nations, with a political view, perhaps, of fti-
mulating them by praiTe, and exciting them
to ftill greater exertions ; but fuch arts are here
unneceflary ; nor would they, indeed, become
a fociety, who feek nothing but truth unadorned
by rhetorick ; and, although we muft be con-
feious of our fuperior advancement in all kinds
of ufeful knowledge, yet we ought not there-
fore to contemn the people of AJia, from whofe
rcfearches into nature, works of art, and inven-
tions of fancy, many* valuable hints may be de-

ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE.

]3

rived for our own improvement and advantage.
If that, indeed, were not the principal objeft of
your inftitution, little elfe could arife from it
but the mere gratification of curiofityj and I
fhould not receive fo much delight from the
humble fhare, which you have allowed me to
take, in promoting it.

To form an exad parallel between the works
and adlions of the Weftern and Eaftern worlds,
would requii-e a trad of no inconfiderable length j
but we may decide on the whole, that reafon
and tafte are the grand prerogatives of European
minds, while the AJiaticks have foared to .iQftier
heights in the fphere of imagination. The civil
hiftory of their vaft empires, and of India in
particular, muft be highly interefting to our
common country; but we have a ftill nearer
intereft io knowing all former modes of ruling
thefe inejiimable provinces^ on the profperity of
which fo much of our national welfare, and in-
dividual benefit, feems to depend. A minute
geographical knowledge, not only of Bengal
and Bahar, but, for evident reafons, of all the
kingdoms bordering on them^ is clofely conneded
■with an account of their many revolutions : but
the natural produdtons of thefe* territories, ef-
pecially in the vegetable and mineral fyftems,
are momentous objeds of refearch to an imperial^

11

THE PRESIDENT’S SECOND

but, which is a charad6r of equal dignity, a com-
mercialy people.

If Botany may be defcribed by metaphors
drawn from the fcience itfelf, we may juftly
pronounce a minute acquaintance with plantSy
fheir elaJfeSy orders, kinds, and fpecies, to be its
flowers, which can only produce fruit by an
application of that knowledge to the purpofes
of life, particularly to diet, by which difeafes may
be avoided, and to medicine, by which they may
be remedied : for the improvement of the laft
mentioned art, than which none furely can be
more beneficial to mankind, the virtues of mi-
nerals alfo fhould be accurately known. So
highly has medical fkill been prized by the an-
cient Indians, that one of the fourteen R etna's,
tr precious things, which their Gods are believed
to have produced by churning the ocean with
the mountain Mandara, was a learned phyfician.
What their old books contain on this fubjed,
we ought certainly to difeover, and that without
lofs of time ; left the venerable but abftrufe lan-
guage, in which they are compofed, fhould ceafe
to be perfectly intelligible, even to the belt edu-
cated natives, through a want of powerful in-
vitation to ftudy it. BER^fIER, who was him-
felf of the Faculty, mentions approved medical
books in Sanferit, and cites a few aphorifms.

ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE. 15

which appear judicious and rational ; but we
can expedl nothing fo important from the works
of Hindu or Mujelman phyficians, as the know-
ledge, which experience muft have given them,
of Jimple medicines. I have feen an Indian
prefcrlption of fifty-four^ and another of fixty-
fix, ingredients ; but fuch compofitions are always
to be fufpediedj.lince the elFe£t of one ingredient
may deftroy that of another ; and it were better
to find certain accounts of a fingle leaf or berry,
than to be acquainted with the moft elaborate
compounds, unlefs they too have been proved
by a multitude of fuccefsful experiments. The
noble deobftruent oil, extradled from the J^randa
nut, the whole family of Balfams, the incom-
parable ftomachick root from Coluinbo, the fine
aftringent ridiculoufly called fapan earth, but*
in truth produced by the decddlion of an Indian
plant, have long been ufed in fjia ; and who
can foretel what glorious discoveries of other oils,
roots, and falutary juices, may be made by your
fociety? If it be doubtful whether the Peruvian
bark be always efficacious in this country, its
place may, perhaps, be fupplied by fome indi-
■genous vegetable equally antifeptick, and more
congenial to the climate. Whether any trea-
tifes on Agriculture have been written by ex-
perienced natives of thefe provinces, I am not
yet informed ; but fince the court of Spain ex-

16

THE PRESIDENT’S SECOND

peft to find ufeful remarks in an Arabick tradl
preferved in the Efcuriah on the cultivation of
land in that kingdom^ we fliould inquire for
fimilar compofitions, and examine the contents
of fuch as we can procure.

• The fublime fcience of Chymiftiy, which I
was on the point of calling divine, mull be added,
as a key to the richell treafurics of nature j and
it is impoflible to forefee how greatly it may im-
prove our manufdStures, efpecially if it can fix
thofe brilliant dyes, which want nothing of per-
fedl beauty but a longer continuance of their
fplendourj or how far it may lead to new
methods of fluxing and compounding metals,'
which the Indians, as well as the Chinefe, are
thought to have praclifed in higher perfedlion
■ than ourfelves.

In thofe eleganl arts, which are caWedfiie and
liberal, though of lefs general utility than the
labours of the mechanick, it is really wonderful
how much a fingle nation has excelled the whole
world : I mean the ancient Greeks, whofe Sculp-
ture, of which we have exquifite remains both
on gems and in marble, no modern tool can
equal whofe ArchiteSture we can only imitate
at a fervile diftance, but are unable to make one
addition to it, without deftroying its graceful
. fimplicity; whofe Poetry Hill delights us in
youth, and amufes us at a maturer age j and of

ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE.

17

whofe Painting and Mujick we have the con-
current relations of fo many grave autliors, that
it would be ftrange incredulity to doubt their c.x-
cellence. Painting, as an art belonging to the
powers of the imagination, or what is common-
ly called Genius, appears to be yet in its infancy
among the people of the Eaft : but the Hindu
fyftem of miifick has, I believe, been formed on
truer principles than our own ; and all the fkill
of the native compofers is diredted to tlie great
objedt of their art, the natural exprejjion of Jlrong
pajjtons, to which melody, indeed, is often facri-
•ficed : though fome of their tunes are pleafmg
even to an European ear. Nearly the farne may
be truly ^aflerted of the Jlrahian or Pcrfian fy-
ftem ; and, by a corredt explanation of the bed
books on that fubjedt, much of the old Grecian^
theory may probably be reco#^ered.

Hhe poetical works of the Arabs and Per fans,
which differ furprifingly in their ftyle and form,
are here pretty generally known ; and, though
taftes, concerning which there can be no dilput-
ing, are divided in regal'd to their merit, yet we
may fafely fay of them, what Abulfazl pro-
nounces of the Mahdbhdrai, that, “ aithough
“ they abound with extravagant images and de-
“ feriptions, they are in the higheft degree enter-
“ taining and inftrudUve.” Poets of the greateft
genius, Pijjdar, .dLscHYLU.s, Dante, Pe-

IS

THE PRESIDENT’S SECOND

TRARCA, Shakespear, Spenser, havc moft
abounded in images not far from the brink of
abfurdity ; but, if their luxuriant fancies, or
thofe of Abulola, Firdausi, Niza'mi, were
pruned away at the hazard of their ftrength and
majefty, we fhould lofe many pleafures by the
amputation. If we may form a juft opinion of
the Sanfcrit poetry from the fpecimens already
exhibited, (though we can only judge perfedtly
by confulting the originals), we cannot but thirft
fpr the whole work of Vya'sa, with which a
member of our fociety, whofe prefence deters
me from faying more of him, wnll in due time
gratify the publick. The poetry of Mathura^
which is the ParnaJJian land of the Hindusy has
a fofter and lefs elevated ftrain ; but, fince the
.inhabitants of the diftridts near ^gra, and prin-
cipally of the Duffh, are faid to furpafs all other
Indians in eloquence, and to have compofed
many agreeable tales and lovefongs, which are
ftill extant, the Bbdjbdy or vernacular idiom of
Vrajay in which they are written, fhould not be
neglefted. No fpecimens of genuine Oratory
can be expedled from nations, among whom the
form of government precludes even the idea of
popular eloquence ; but the |rt of writing, in
elegant and modulated periods, has been culti-
vated in Ajia from the earlieft ages : the Veda's,
as well as the AJcorofl, are written in meafured

ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE.

19

profe ; and the compofitions of Isocrates are
not more highly polifhed than thofe of the heft
Arabian and Perfian authors.

Of the Hindu and Mufdman archite£lure there
are yet many noble remains in Bahar^ and fome
in the vicinity of Malda ; nor am I unwilliug
to believe, that even thofe ruins, of which you
will, I truft, be prefented with correft delinea-
tions, may furnifti our own architefts with new
ideas of beauty and fublimity.

Permit me now to add a few words on the
Sciences, properly fo named ; in which it mull
be admitted, that the ^Jiaticks, if compared
with our Weftern nations, are mere children.
One of the moft fagacious men in this age, who
continues, I hope, to improve and adorn it,
Samuel Johnson, remarked in my hearing,*
that, ‘‘ if Newton had flouriflied in ancient
“ Greece, he would have been worlhipped as a
“ divinity how zealoufly then would he be
adored in Hindujlan, if his incomparable writ-
ings could be read and comprehended by the
Pandits of Cajhmir or Benares ! I have feen a
mathematical book in Sanfcrit of the higheft
•antiquity; but foon perceived from the dia-*
grams, that it corvtained only iimple elements :
there may, indeed, have been, in the favourable
atmofphere of JJia, fome diligent obfervers of
the celeilial bodies, and fuch obfervations, as are

20

TH£ PRjiSIDENT’S SECOND

recorded, Ihould indifputably be made publick;
but let us not exped any new methods, or the
analyils of new curves, from the geometricians
of Iran, Turkijian, or Indii7. Could the works
of Archjmkdes, the Newton of Sicily, be
raftered to their genuine purity by the help of
Jlrahick verfions, .we might then have reafon to
triumph on the fuccefs of our fcientifical inqui-
ries ; or could the fuccellivc improvements and
various rules of Algebra be traced through Ara-
bian channels, to which Cardan boalled that
he had accefs, the modern Hiftory of Maihema-
ticks would receive confiderable illuftration.

'J’he Jurifprudence of the Hindus and Muf el-
mans will produce more immediate advantage ;
and, if fome ftandard lazc-traAs were accurately
■ tranflated from the Sanferit and Arabick, we
might hope in time to fee fo complete a Digeft
of Indian Laws, that all difputes among the na-
tives might be decided without uncertainty, which
is in truth a difgrace, though fatirically called a
glory, to the forenlick fcience.

All thefe objects of inquiry muft appear to
you, Gentlemen, in fo ftrong a light, that bare
intimations of them will be fufKcient ; nor is it
neceflary to make ufe of emula,tion as an incentive
to an ardent purfuit of them : yet I cannot for-
bear exprelfing a wilh, that the activity of the
French in the fame purfuits may not be fuperior

ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE. 21

to ours, and that the refearches of M. Son-
NERAT, whom the court of employed

for feven years in thefe climates, merely to
colled: fuch materials as we are feeking, may
kindle, inftcad of abating, our own curiofity
and zeal. If you aflent, as I flatter myfelf you
do, to thefe opinions, you iVill alfo concur in
promoting the objed of them ; and a few ideas
having prefented themfelves to my mind, I pre-
fume to lay them before you, with an entire
fubmiflion to your judgement.

No contributions, except thofe of the literary
kind, will be requifite for the fupport of the fo-
ciety ; but, if each of us were occafionally to
contribute a fuccind defeription of fuch manu-
feripts as he had perufed or infpeded, with their
dates and the names of their owners, and* tcT
propofg for folution fuch quejtions as had occur-
red to him concerning yljiatick Art, Science, and
Hiftory, natural or civil, we fhould pofTefs with-
out labour, and almoft by imperceptible degrees,
a fuller catalogue of Oriental books, than has
hitherto been exhibited, and our correfpondents
would be apprifed of thofe points, to which we
chiefly dired our inveftigations. Much may,
I am confident, be expeded from the communi-
cations of learned natives ^ whether lawyers, phy-
ficians, or private fcholars, who would eagerly,
on the firft invitation, fend Us their Mekdmdt

22

THE PRESIDENTS SECOND

snd HifdJahs on a variety of fubjedtsj fame for
the fake of advancing general knowledge^ but
moft of them from a defirc, neither uncommon
nor unreafonable, of attrading notice, and re-
commending themfelves to favour. With a
view to avail ourfelves of this difpofition, and
to bring their latent fcience under our inlpedion,
it might be advifable to print and circulate a
(hort memorial, in Perjian and Hindis fetting
forth, in a ftyle accommodated to their own ha-
bits and prejudices, the defign of our inftitution;
nor would it be impoflible hereafter, to give a
medal annually, with infcriptions in Perjian on
one fide, and on the reverfe in Sanfcrit^ as the
prize of merit, to the writer of the beft eflay or
diflertation. To inftrud others is the prefcribed
duty of learned Brahmans^ and, if they be men
of fubftance, without reward ; but they would
all be flattered with an honorary mark of dif-
tindion; and the Mahomedans have not only
the permifllon, but the pofitive command, of
their law-giver, to Jearcb for learmng even in the
remotejl parts of the globe. It were fuperfluous
to fugged, with how much corrednefs and fa-
cility their compofitions might be tranflated for
our ufe, dnce their languages are now more ge-
nerally and perfedly underdood than they have
ever been by any nation of Europe.

I have detained you, I fear, too long by this

ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE.

23

addrefs, though it has been my endeavour to
reconcile comprehenfiveneis with brevity ; the
fubje£ts, which I have lightly fketched, would
be found, if minutely examined, to be inexhauf-
tible ; and, fince no limits can be fet to your rc-
fearches but the boundaries of y^/ia kfelf^I may
not improperly conclude with wifliing for your
fociety, what the Commentator on the Laws,
prays for the conftitution, of our country, that
U'MAY BE PERPETUAL.

THE THIRD

ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE,

DELIVERED 2 FEBRUARY, I78e.

BV

THE PRESIDENT.

In the formei* difcourfes, which I had the ho-
nour of addrefling to you, Gentlemen, on tlie

4

hijliiution and objcMs of our Society, I conlined
myfelf purpofcly to general topicks; giving in
the firft a diflant profpe£t of the vail career, on
•which we were entering, and, in the fecond, ex-
hibiting a more ^difFufe, but llill fupcrficial,
Iketch of the various difeoveries in Hiftoiv,
Science, and Art, which we might juftly expedt
from our inquiries into the literature of AJia,
I now propofe to fill up that outline fo com-
prchenfively as to omit nothing elTential, yet fo
concifely as to avoid being tedious ; and, if the
ftate of my health lhall fuffer me to continue
long enough in this climate, .it is my defign,
with your permilfion, to prepare for our annual
meetings a feries of Ihort dilTertations, uncon-
neded in their titles and fubjeds, but all tending

THE THIRD DISCOURSE, &c.

23

to a common point of no fmall importance in
the purfuit of intcrcfting truths.

Of all the works, which h;ivc been publilhed
in our own age, or, perhaps, in any other, on
the Iliftory of the Ancient World, and the jirjl
populalion of ibis habitable (fbt by, th at oJF^Mk.
j.ACOF. Bryant, whom I nanie with reverence
and affection, ha? the heft claim to the praife of
deep erudition ingenioully^ applied, and new
theories happily illuflratcd^by an aO'emblage of
numberltfs converging rays from a moft exten-
fivc circumference ; it falls,yfcvcrtbelcfs, as cycry
human work mull fall, fhort of perfection ; and
the loaft iiitisfaCtory part of it feems to be that,
which relates to the derivation of words from
AJidlick languages. Etymology has, no doubt,
foHje ufe in hiftorical refearches ; but it is a me-
diuni of jproof fo very fallaciotfs, that, where it
cluyi^ates one faCl, it obfcurcs a thoufand, and
n\ore^frequently borders on the ridiculous, than
leads to any folid conclufion : it rarely carries
with it any internal power of conviction from a
refemblance of founds or fimilarity of letters ;
yet often, where it is wholly unaffillcd by thofe
advantages, it may be indifputably proved by
extrinjick evidence- We know a pojlerioriy that
both^^s: and hijo, by the nature of two feveral
dialects, are derived from Jilius-, that uncle comes
from avus, and Jlrane^er frotn extra ; that jour

26 THE THIRD filSCOlTRSE,

is dedudble, through the Italian^ from diesi and
rojjignol from lufchiia^ or the finger in groves \
that Jciuro^ ecureuil^ and fquirrel are compounded
of two Greek words defcriptive of the animal ;
which etymologies, though they could not have
been demonfl rated a priori^ might ferve to con-
firm, if any fuch confirmation were neceflfary,
the proofs of a connedtion between the mem-
bers of one great Empire ; but, when we derive
our banger y or fioiL pendent /wordy from the
Perfatiy becaufe ignorant travellers thus mis-
fpell the word khanjoTy which in truth means
a different weapon, or Jandal-wood from the
Greek, becaufe we fuppofe, that fandals were
fometimes made of it, we gain no ground in
proving the affinity of nations, and only weaken
arguments, which might otherwife be firrnly
fupported. That Cu's then, or, as it, certainly
is written in one ancient dialedl, Cu'r, artJ* in
others, probably, Ca's, enters into the-cori-
pofition of many proper names, we may very
reafonably believe; and that Algeziras takes its
name from the Arabick word for an if and, can-
not be doubted; but, when vre are told from
Europe, that places and provinces in India were
clearly denominated from thofe words, we can-
not but obferve, in the fir ft inftance, that the
town, in which we now are alTembled, is pro-
perly written and -pronounced Calicdta-, that

ON THE HINDU’S.

2 '

both Cdtd and Cut unqueflionably mean places
of Jlrength, or, in general, any inclofarcs ; and
that Gujarat is at leaft as remote from jezirah
in found, as it is in fituation.

Another exception (and a third could hardly
be difeovered by any candid criticilm) to the
Analyjis of Ancient MytboIogy,}fs~^iiCt^)nelhod
of reafoning and arrangement of topicks adopted
in that learned work are nwt quite agreeable to
the title, but almoft whqSy fyntbctical-, and,
though fyntbefis may be the better mode in pure
fcience, where the principle are undeniable, yet
it feems lefs calculated«t» give complete fatis-
fadbion in bijlorical difquifitions, where every
poftulatum will perhaps be refufed, and every
definition controvei'ted : this may feem a flight
G^edtion, but the fubjeift is in itfelf fo intereft-
ing^nd the full convidtion of jill reafonable men
fo durable, that it may not be loft labour to dif-
QuiC ^e fame or a fimilar theory in a method
finely analytical, and, after beginning with fadts
of general notoriety or undifputed evidence, to
inveftigate fuch truths, as are at firft unknown
or very imperfedtly difeerned.

, The five principal nations, who have in dif-
ferent ages divided among themfelves, as a kind
of inheritance, the vaft continent of Afia, with
the many iflands depending on it, are the In-
dians^ the Chinefe, the Tartars, the Arabs, and

VQL. I. E

THE THtkU

as

the Pcrjians : xvho they feverally were, ivhenci
and U'hen they came, ivbere they now are fet-
tled, and ivbat advanlage a more perfedt know-
ledge of them all may bring to our European
world, will be fliown, I trull, in Jive dillindl
efl'ays ; the lall of which will deinonftrate the
connexion of dn'qrfity between them, and folve
the great problem,\ whether they had any com-
mon origin, and vniether that origin was the
fame, which we generally aferibe to them.

I begin with India, not becaufe I find reafon
to believe it the tru? centre of population or of
knowledge, but, becaull it is the country, which
we now inhabit, and from which we may bell
furvey the regions around us; as, in popular
language, wc fpeak of the rifing fun, and of his
progrejs through the Zodiac k, although it had
long ago been ipiagined, and is now derion-
llratod, that he is himfelf the centre of oui ^pla-
netary fyftcm. Let me here premife, that in
all thefe inquiries concerning the hiftory of I'^dta,

I fliall confine my refearches downwards to the
Mohammedan conquefts at the beginning of .the
eleventh century, but extend them upwards, as
high as poflible, to the earlieft authentick records
of the human fpecies.

India then, on its moll enlarged fcale, in
vVhich the ancients appear to have underftood it,
comprifes an ar,ea of neds forty degrees on each

ON THE HINDU’S.

‘29

fide, including a fpace aimoft as large as all
Europe i being divided on the weft from Pcrfia.
by the Arachofian mountains, limited on the caft
by the Chinefe part of the farther peninfula, con-
fined on the north by the wilds of Tartary, and
extending to the fouth as far as the ifles of yflva-
This trapezium, therefore, comprehends the ftu-
pendous hills of Potyid or jtibet, the beautiful
valley of Cajlimir, and allMhc domains of the
old Indofcytbians , the coAtries of Nepal and
Butdnt, Cdmritp or AJdm, together with Siam,
Ava, Racan, and the boi^cring kingdoms, as
far as the China of the Ilfmlus or Sin of the Ara-
bian Geographers; not to mention the whole
weftern peninfula with the celebrated ifland of
Sinbala, or Lion-like men, at its fouthern ex-
tw^ity. By’ India, in Ihort, I mean that whole
ext^t of country, in which the primitive fe-
ligi^ and languages of the Hindus prevail at
-tpiU^c^y with more or lefs of their ancient pu-
‘rityi’ and in which the Ndgari letters are ftill
ufcd with more or lefs deviation from their
original form.

The Hindus themfelves believe their own
country, to which they give the vain epithets of
Medbyama or Central, and Punyabhumi, or the
Land ^ Virtues, to have been the portion of
Bharat, one of nine brothers, whofe father had
the dominion of the whole ^art]} j and they rc-

E 2

30 THE THIRD DISCOURSE,

prefent the mountains of Himalaya as lying to
the north, and, to the weft, thofe of Vindhya^
called alfo V Indian by the Greeks \ beyond which
the Sindhu runs in feveral branches to the fea,
and meets it nearly oppofite to the point of
Dimracdy the celebrated feat of their Shepherd
God •^n\X\ieJ(nuh:-eaJl they place the great river
Saraiuitya ; by wh\^h they probably mean that
of ^va, called alfo J^rdvati in part of its courfe,
and giving perhaps ^ ancient name to the gulf
of Sahara. This d/tmain of Bharat they con-
lldcr as the middle the 'Jamhudtvipa, which
the Tibetians alfo call iLe Land of Zambu ; and
the appellation is extremely remarkable ; 'for
Jambu is the Sanferit name of a delicate fruit
called ydtnan by the Mufelmans, and by us rqfe~
apple ; but the largeft and richeft fort is named
Amrita, or Immortal', and the Mythologies of
Tibet apply the fame word to a celeftial ^.ree
bearing ambrojial fruit, and adjoining to ^ mr
vaft rocks, from which as many facred rivers
derive their feveral ftreams.

The inhabitants of this extenfive tra£l: are de-
feribed by Mr. Lord with great exadtnefs, and
with a pidlurefque elegance peculiar to our an-
cient language : “ A people, fays he, prefented
“ themfelves to mine eyes, clothed in linen gar-
“ ments fomewhat low defeending, of a gefture
“ and garb, as I may fay, maidenly and well

ON THE HINDU S.

31

“ nigh efFeminate, of a countenance fliy and
“ fomewhat eftranged, yet fmiling out a glozed
“ and balhful familiarity.” Mr. Oume, tlie
Hiftorian of India, who unites an exquifite taRe
for every fine art with an accurate knowledge of
jJJiatick manners, obferves, in his elegant pre-
liminary Differtation, that Hds “ country has
“ been inhabited from the jirarlieR antiquity by
“ a people, who have no ittemblance, either in
“ their figure or manners* with any of the na-
“ tions contiguous to them,’) and that, “ although
“ conquerors have eftablifl^d themfclves at dif-
“ ferent times in differ^^Fl^arts of India, yet the
“ cJriginal inhabitants have loft very little of
“ their original chara6ler.” The ancients, in
faft, give a defeription of them, which our early
‘"‘Rwvellers confirmed, and our own perfonal knq,w-
led^ of them nearly verifies « as yotfwTirper-
cei^ from a pafllige in the Geographical Poem
‘ qf I^P^ONYSius, which the Analyft of Ancient
' Mythology has tranflated with great fpirit :

** To th’ eaft a lovely country wide extends,

“ India, whofc borders the wide ocean bounds \
On this the fun, new riling from the main.
Smiles pleas’d, and flieds his early orient beam,
“ I'h’ inhabitants are fwart, and in their locks
** Betray the tints 'of the dark hyacinth.

‘‘ Various their functions; fome the rock explore.
And from the mine extradl the latent gold ;
Some labour at the woof w^th cunning Ikill,

32

THE THIRD DISCOURSE,

And manufafture linen ; others fliapc
And polifli iv’ry with the niceft care:

‘‘ Many retire to rivers fhoal, and plunge
To leek the beryl flaming in its bed,

Or glirt’ring diamond. Oft the jafper's found
Greer], but diaphanous ; the topaz too
‘‘ Of ray ferene and pleafing ; lad of all
*^TixJ*To^r}y^ii^thyfl;, in M'hich combine

All the mild fli^es of purple. The rich foil,

“ Wafli’d by a thoimnd rivers, from all fides
Pours on the nati^> wealth without control.”

Their fourccs of /Wealth are ftill abundant
even after fo many Tevolutions and conquefts;
in their manufadiur^o^cotton they flill furpafs
all the world ; and their features have, moll
probably, remained unaltered fince the time of
Diokyshts ; nor can we reafonably doubt, how
degenerate and abafed fo ever the Hindus may
nor’; appear, that in fome early age they wjfe
fplendid in arts and arms, happy in govfrnt(ient,
wnfe in legiflation, and eminent in various knt.w-
Icdge: but, lincc their civil hiftory beyohdOh^
middle of the nineteaitb century from the pre-
fent time, is involved in a cloud of fables, we
feem to poffcfs ov\j four general media of fatis-
fying our curiofity concerning it ; namely, firft,
their Languages and Letters-, fecondly, their
Philofophy and Religion thirdly, the adlual re-
mains of their old Sculpture and Architedture ;
and fourthly, the written memorials of their
Sciences and Arts. >

ON THE HINDU’S.

I, It is much to be lamented, that neither the
Greeks, who attended Alexandi.r into India,
nor thole who were long connected with it
under the Ba^riaii Princes, have left us any
means of knowing with accuracy, what verna-
cular languages they found on their arrival in
this Empire. T he Mobanwedans, we know,
heard the people of proper or India

on a limited fcale, fpeakini^jf a Bbdjbd, or living
tongue of a very lingular cVnllrudtion, the purcll
dialed! of which was cuirent in the dillridls
round Agra, and chiefly the poetical ground
of Mafburd; and thy^^s commonly called the
idiom of Vraja. F'ive words in fix, perhaps, of
this language were derived from the Satifcrii^
in which books of religion and fcience were com-
‘^W'ed, and which appears to have been foriped •
by cxquHite grammatical tlie

n^r-iric itfelf implies, from fome unpolilheJ idiom;

^^le hafis of the Ilnidujhhiiy particularly the
inflexions and regimen of verbs, dilTercd as
widely from both tliol'e tongues, as /Ircibich
difters from Pcrfiiuiy or Gcnnati from Greek.
Now the general eiTe£l of coiupicd is to leave
•the current language of the conquered peojde
unchanged, or ve^y little altered, in its ground-
work, but to blend witli it a confiderablc number
of exotick names both for things and for a(dions ;
as it has happened in every Gentry, that I can

THE THIRD DISCOURSE,

34

recollef^^, where the conquerors have not pre-
ferved their own tongue unmixed with that of
the natives, like the Turks in Greece, and the
Saxons in Britain ; and this analogy might in-
duce us to believe, that the pure Hindi, whether
of. Tariarjan or Chaldean origin, was primeval
in Upper India, 'into which the Sanferit was
introduced by con^crors from, other kingdoms
in fome very remot^age ; for we cannot doubt
that the language ofithe Veda’s was ufed in the
great extent of couiyry, which has before been
delineated, as long^X^the religion of Brahma
has prevailed in it.

The Sanferit language, whatever be its anti-
quity, is of a wonderful ftrudlurc ; more perfe£l
than the Greek, more copious than the Latin,
and more exquifitely refined than either, ySt
bearing to‘ both of them a ftronger affinity, [ooth
in the roots of verbs and in the forms of g^api-
mar, than could poflibly have been produc«df^ bi
accident ; fo ftrong indeed, that no philologer
could examine them all three, without believing
them to have fprung from fome common fource,
which, perhaps, no longer exifts : there is a
fimilar reafon, though not quite fo forcible, for
fuppofing that both the Gotbick and the Cellick,
though blended with a very different idiom, had
the fame origin with the Sanferit ; and the old
Berjian might be added to the fame family, if

ON THE HINDU’S.

S5

this were the place for difcufling any queftion
concerning the antiquities of Peijia.

The charaBers, in which the languages of In-
dia were originally written, are called Ndgariy
from Nagara, a city with the word Deva fomc-
times prefixed, becaufe they are believed to have
been taught by the Divinity himfelf, who prc-
fcribed the artificial order e/f them in a voice
from heaven. Thefe lettf^s, with no greater
variation in their form by bne change of ftraight
lines to curves, or converllbly, than the Cujick
alphabet has received in i*^ way to Indian are
vftill adopted in more tj^^i twenty kingdoms and
ftates, from the borders of Cajhgar and Khoten,
to Rama's bridge, and from the Sindhu to the
river of Siam; nor can I help believing, al-
though the poliflied and elegant Devandgari .
may not be fo ancient as the.momjmehtal cha-
radlers in the caverns of Jarafandha, that the
‘■fquare Chuldaick letters, in which moft Hebrew
books are copied, were originally the fame, or
derived from the fame prototype, both with the
Indian and Arabian characters: that the Pbe-
niciuny from which the Greek and Roman al-
• phabets were formed by various changes and
inverfions, had a^fimilar origin, there can be
little doubt; and the inferiptions at Candrahy of
which you now poffefs a moft accurate copy,
feetn to be compounded of Npgari and Eihio-

36

THE THIRD DISCOURSE,

pick letters, which bear a clofe relation to each
other, both in the mode of writing from the
left hand, and in the lingular manner of con-
ncdxing the vowels with the confonants. Thefe
remarks may favour an opinion entertained by
many, that all the fymbols of found, which at
firft, probably, w.cre only rude outlines of the
different organs of Ipeech, had a common origin :
the fymbols of now ufed in China and

'Japan, and formerly, perhaps, in F^gypt and
Mexico, are quite o:^ a diftindl nature ; but it is
very remarkable, thfe< the order oi founds in the
Cbinefc grammars corresponds nearly with that
obferved in Tibet, and hardly differs from that,
which the Hindus confider as the invention of
their Gods.

n. Of the Indian Religion and Philofophy, 1
fhair* TTerS'-foy- but little ; becaufe a full account
of each would require a feparate volume : it will
be fufficient in this differtatiou to affume, what
might be proved beyond controverfy, that we
now live among the adorers of thofe very deities,
who were worfhipped under different names in
old Greece and Italy, and among the profeffors
of thofe philofophical tenets, which the lonick
and Atlick writers illudrated vyith all the beauties
of their melodious language. On one hand we
fee the trident of Neptune, the eagle of Jupi-
ter, the fatyrs o^^Bj^cchus, the bow of Cupid,

ON THE HINDU’S.

37

and the chariot of the Sun ; on another we hear
the cymbals of Rhka, the fongs of the Mufes^
and the paftoral tales of Apollo Nomius. In
more retired fcenes, in groves, and in feminaries
of learning, we may perceive the Brnbnians and
the Sarmanes, mentioned by Clemens, dis-
puting in the forms of logick, or difcourfing on
the vanity of human enjoyments, on the im-
mortality of the foul, her emanation from the
eternal mind, her debafentent, wanderings, and
final union with her fourcl The Jix philofo-
phical Schools, whpfe prirViples are explained
the DerJiVia <S'<7/?r^‘'1ibyiprife all the meta-
phyficks of the old Academy^ the Sioa^ th'e Ly-
ceum ; nor is it poflible to read the Feddnta, or
the many fine compofitions in illuftration of it,
without believing, that Pythagoras and Pla-
to derived their Sublime theories fpom thtf lame
fountain with the Sages of India. The Scythian
'and Hyperborean dodlrines and mythology may
alfo be traced in every part of theSc eallern re-
gions ; nor can we doubt, that Won or Oden,
whoSe religion, as the northern hiftorians admit,
was introduced into Scandinavia by a foreign
•race, was the fame with Buddh, whofe rites
were probably imported into^ India nearly at
the fame time, though received much later by
the Chinefe, who Soften his name into FO'.

^ This may be a proper place to aScertain an

38

THE THIRD DISCOURSE,

important point in the Chronology of the Hin-
dus', for the priefts of Buddha left in Tibet
and China the precife epoch of his appearance,
real or imagined, in this Empire ; and their in-
formation, which had been preferved in writing,
was compared by the Chrijlian Miflionaries and
fcholars with our own era. Couplet, De
Guignes, Giorgi, and Bailly, differ a little
in their accounts of this epoch, but that of
Couplet feems the moll corred: on taking, how-
ever, the medium of the four feveral dates, we
may fix the time of^UDDHA, or the ninth great
incarnation of the year one thoufand

and fourteen before the birth of Christ, or two
thoufand /even hundred and ninety-nine years
ago. Now the Cdjhmirians, who boaft of his
defcent in their kingdom, alfert that he appeared
on'^oa^th- ^l^ut two centuries after Crishna
the Indian Apollo, who took fo decided a part
in the war of the Mahdbhdrat and, if an Ety-:
mologift were to fuppofe, that the Athenians had
embellifhed their poetical hiftory of Pa nd ion’s
expulfion and the reftoration of iEGEUs with
the JJiatick tale of the Pa ndus and Yud-
HisHTiR, neither of which words they could
have articulated, I fhould not hallily deride his
conjedure : certain it is, that Pdndumandel is
called by the Greeks the country of Pandion.
We have, therefore, determined another intereft-

ON THE HINDU’S.

39

ing epoch, by fixing the age of Crisiina near
the tJyree thoufandth year from the prefent time ;
and, as the three firft Avatars, or defcents of
Vishnu, relate no lefs clearly to an Univerfal
Deluge, in which eight perfons only were faved,
than the /owrf/) and Jiftb do to the punijhment of
impiety and the humiliation of the proud, we may
for the prefent alTume, that the fecoitd, or Jilver,
age of the Hindus was fubfcquent to the dif-
perfion from Babel •, fo that we have only a
dark interval of about a thoufand years, which
were employed in the fettleiViit of nations, the
'foundation of ftates orseinpires, and the cul-
tivation of civil focicty. The great intarnate
Gods of this intermediate age are both named
Rama but with different epithets ; one of whom
•bears a wonderful refemblance to the Indian
Bacchus, and his wars arethe,fubjeQ;<»f fcveral
heroick poems. He is reprefented as a dcfcend-
pnt from Su'rya, or the Sun, as the hufband of
Si'ta', and the fon of a princefs named Cau'-
SELYA : it is very remarkable, that the Peru-
vians, whofe Incas boafted of the fame defcent,
ftyled their greateft feftival Ramafitoa ; whence
we may fuppofe, that South America was peopled
by the fame race, who imported into the far-
theft parts of Ajia the rites and ’fabulous hiftory
of Ra'ma. Thefe rites and this hiftory are ex-
tremely curious ; and, althoygh f cannot believe

40

THE THIRD DISCOURSE,

with Newton, that ancient mythology was
nothing but hiftorical truth in a poetical drefs,
nor, with Bacon, that it confifted folely of
moral and metaphyfical allegories, nor with
Bryant, that all the heathen divinities are
only different attributes and reprefentations of
the Sun or of deceafed progenitors, but conceive
that the whole fyftem of religious fables rofe,
like the Nile, from feveral diftin£l; fources, yet I
cannot but agree, that one great fpring and
fountain of all idolatry in the four quarters of
the globe was the>(veneration paid by men to
the vaft body of fire, ^hich “ looks from his
foie dominion like the God of this world;’*
and another, the immoderate refpedt fhown to
the memoi-y of powerful or virtuous anceftors,
efpecially the founders of kingdoms, legiflators,
and>* warriors,, of, whom the Sun or the Moon
were wildly fuppofed to be the parents.*

III. The remains of archite^ure and fculpture.
in India, which I mention here as mere monu-
ments of antiquity, not as fpecimens of ancient
art, feem to prove an early connedtion between
this country and Africa : the pyramids of Egypt,
the coloffal ftatues deferibed by Pausanias and
others, the fphinx, and the Hermes Cams, which
laft bears a great refemblance to the F ardhdvatdr,
or the incarnation of Vishnu in the form of a
Boar, indicate the Ijtyle and mythology of the

ON THE HINDU’S.

41

fame indefatigable workmen, who formed the
vaft excavations of Cdndrab, the various temples
•and images of Buddha, and the idols, which
are continually dug up at Gaydy or in its vi-
cinity. The letters on many of thofe monu-
ments appear, as I have before lirtlmated, partly
of Indian, and partly of Abyjjhuan or ElLiopick,
origin ; and all thefe indubitable fadls may in-
duce no ill -grounded opinion, that Elhiopia and
Hindiijldn were peopled or colonized by the
fame extraordinary race ; in confirmation of
which, it may be added, tl^t the mountaineers
of Bengal and Babiir c^n hardly be diftinguifh-
cu .in fome of their features, particularly.their
lips and nofes, from the modern AhyJJmians,
whom the Arabs call the children of Cu sh : and
the ancient Hindus, according to Strabo, dif-
fered in nothing from the Afrkans, hut in the
ftraitnefs* and fmoothnefs of their hair, while
that of the others was crifp or woolly ; a differ-
ence proceeding chiefly, if not entirely, from the
refpedtive humidity or drynefs of their atmo-
fphercs: hence the people who received tbejirfl
light oj tbe rijing fun, according to the limited
knowledge of the ancients, are faid by Apuleius
to be the Aru and Ethiopians, by which he
clearly meant certain nations of Ifidia ; where
we frequently fee figures of Buddha with

42 THE THIRD DISCOURSE^

curled hair apparently defigned for a repre-
fentation of it in its natural ftate.

IV. It is unfortunate, that the Silpi Sajlra, or
colledlion of treatifes on Arts and Manufa^ures,
which muft have contained a treafure of ufeful
information on dying, painting, and metallurgy,
has been fo long neglecfled, that few, if any,
traces of it are to be found ; but the labours of
the Indian loom and needle have been univer-
fally celebrated ; andj^/ze linen is not improbably
fuppofcd to have been called Sindon, from the
name of the river pear which it was wrought in
the higheft perfedion^ the people of Colchis
were alfo famed for this manufadure, and, the
Egyptians yet more, as we learn from feveral
paflages in fcripture, and particularly from a
beautiful chapter in Ezekial containing the
moft authentick delineation of ancient com-
merce, of which Tyre had been the ' principal
mart. Silk was fabricated immemorially by the
Indians, though commonly afcribed to the peo-
ple of Serica or Tanciit, among whom probably
the word Ser, which the Greeks applied to the
Jilk-worm, fignified gold ; a fenfe, which it now
bears in Tihet. That the Hindus were in early
ages a commercial people, we have many reafons
to believe ; and in the firft of their facred law-
trads, which they fuppofe to have been revealed

ON THE HINDU'S.

hy Menu many millions of years ago, we find
a curious paflage on the legal interejl of money,
and the limited rate of it in different cafes, with
an exception in regard to adventures at fea ; an
exception, which the fenfe of mankind approves,
and which commerce abfolutely requires, though
it was not before the reign of Charles I. that
our own jurifprudence fully admitted it in re-
fpe£t of maritime contra£t8.

We are told by the Grecian writers, that the
Indians were the wifeft of nations ; and in moral
wifdom, they were certainly eminent : their
Niti Sdjlra, or Syjleni of Etbicks^ is yet pre-
ferved, and the Fables of Vishnuserman,
whom we ridiculoufly call Pilpay, are the moft
beautiful, if not the moft ancient, colleilion
of apologues in the world : they were firft trans-
lated from the Sanferit, in the ^xtb century, by
the order of Buzerchumihr, or Bright as the
Sun^ the chief phyfician and afterwards Fezir of
the great An u'shireva'n, and are extant under
various names in more than twenty languages ;
but their original title is Hitopadefa^ or Amicable
liiflruStion •, and, as the very exiftence of Esop,
whom the Arabs believe to have been an Abyf-^
Jinian, appears rather doubtful, I am not difin-
dined to fuppofe, that the firft moral fables,
which appeared in Europe, were of Indian or
Ethiopian origin.

VOL. 1 .

F

U THE THIRD DISCOURSE,

The Hindus are faid to have boalied of three
inventions, all of which, indeed, are admirable,
the method of inftrudting by apolt^ues, the
decimal fcale adopted now by all civilized na-
tions, and the game of Chefs^ on which they
have fome curious treatifes ; but, if their numer-
ous works on Grammar, Logick, Rhetorick,
Miifiek, all which are extant and acceflible, were
explained in fome language generally known,
it would be found, that they had yet higher pre-
tenlions to the praife of a fertile and inventive
genius. Their lighter Poems are lively and ele-
gant j their Epick, magnificent and fublime in
the higheft degree j their Purdna's comprife a
feries of mythological Hiftories in blank verfc
from the Creation to the fuppofed incarnation of
Buddha; and their Vedas, as far as we can
judge from that 'compendium of them, which is
called UpaniJljat, abound with noble fpeculations
in mctaphyficks, and fine difeourfes on the being
and attributes of God. Their moft ancient me-
dical book, entitled Chereca, is believed to be the
work of Siva ; for each of the divinities in their
Triad has at leall one facred compofition af-
cribed to him ; but, as to mere human works on
Hijl(fy and Geography, thojigh they are faid to
be wtant in Cajbmtr, it has not been yet in my
power to procure them. What their ajlrono-^
mical and mathematical writings contain, will

ON THE HINDU’S.

45

not, I trail, remain long a fecret : they are eafily
procured, and their importance cannot be doubt-
ed. The Philofopher, whole works are laid to
include a fyiiem of the uhiverTe founded on the
principle of Attraction and the Central pofition
of the fun, is named Yavan Acha'rya, bccaufe
he had travelled, we are told, into Ionia : if this
be true, he might have been one of thole, who
converfed with Pythagoras ; this at leaft is
undeniable, that a book on aftronomy in Saii-
fcrit bears the title of Xavaiia ydtica, which may
lignify the lojiic SeCt ; nor iS it improbable, that
the names of the planets and Zodiacal ftars,
which the Arabs borrowed from the Greeks, but
which we find in the oldeft Indian records, were
originally devifed by the fame ingenious and en-
terprifing race, from whom both Greece and ’
India were peopled j the race*, who, Ls Diony-
sius deferibes them,

— — ‘ firft aflayed the deep,

‘ And wafted merchandize to coafts unknown,

* Thofe, who digefted (irfl the flarry choir,

‘ Their motions mark’d, and call’d them by their names.’

Of thefe curfory obfervations on the Hindus,
which it would require volumps to expand and
illuftrate, this is the refult : that they had an im-
memorial affinity with the old Perjians, Ethio-
pians, and Egyptians, the Phenicians, Greeks,

*6 THE THIRD DISCOURSE, &c.

and Tufcans, the Scythians or Gotbs^ and Celts^
the Chinefe^ Japanefe^ and Peruvians ; whence,
as no reafon appears for believing, that they
were a colony from any one of thofe nations, or
any of thofe nations from them, we may fairly
conclude that they all proceeded from fome
central country, to inveftigate which will be the
obje«fl of my future Difcourfes ; and I have a
fanguine hope, that your colledlions during the
prefent year will bring to light many ufeful dis-
coveries ; although the departure for Europe of
a very ingenious member, who firft opened the
ineftimable mine of Sanferit literature, will often
deprive us of accurate and folid information con-
cerning the languages and antiquities of India,

THE FOURTH

ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE,

DELIVERED IS FEBRUARY, 1787.

BY

THE PRESIDENT,

GENTLEMEN,

I HAD the honour laft year of opening to
you my intention, to difcourfe at our annual
meetings on the Jive principal nations, , who
have peopled the continent and iflands of Ajia;
fo as to trace, by an hiftorical and philological
analyfis, the number of ancient ftems, from
which thofe five branches have feverally fprung,
and the central region, from which they appear
to have proceeded : you may, therefore, expert,
that, having fubmitted to your confideration a few
general remarks on the old inhabitants of hidia^
I fhould npw offer ray fentiments on fome other
nation, who, from a fimilarity of language^ reli-
gion, arts, and manners, may be fuppofed to have
had an early connection with the Hindus but,
fince we find fom& yijiatick nations totally difli-
milar to them in all or moft of thofe particulars,
and fince the difference will ftrike you more
forcibly by an immediate and clofe comparilbn.

48

THE FOURTH DISCOURSE,

I defign at prefent to give a fliort account of a
wonderful people, who feem in every refpedl fo
ftrongly contrafted to the original natives of this
country, that they muft have been for ages a
dillindt and feparate race.

For the purpofe of thefe difcourfes, I con-
fidered India on its largeft fcale, defcribing it as
lying between Perfia and China^ Tartary and
yava ; and, for the fame purpofe, I now apply
the name of Arabia^ as the Arabian Geographers
often apply it, to that extenfive Peninfula,
which the Red Sea divides from Africa, the
great Ajfyrian river from Iran, and of which the
Erythrean Sea walhes the bafe ; without ex-
cluding any part of its weftern fide, which would
be completely maritime, if no ifthmus intervened
between the Mediterranean, and the Sea of
Kolzom: that country in fliort. I call Arabia, in
which the Arabick language and letters, or fuch
as have a near affinity to them, have been im-
memorially current.

Arabia, thus divided from India by a vaft
ocean, or at leaft by a broad bay, could hardly
have been connefted in any degree with this
country, until navigation and commerce had
been confiderably improved f yet, as the Hindus
jmd the people of Temen were both commercial
nations in a very early age, they were probably
the firft inllruments of conveying to the weftern

ON THE ARABS.

iO

world the gold, ivory, and perfumes of Iiuh’ay
as well as the fragrant wood, called Mluwzva in
yfrabick and aguru in Sanfcrit, which grows in
the greateft perfection in vlnam or Cochiuchina.
It is poffible too, that a part of the Arabian Ido-
latry might have been derived from the fame
fource with that of the Hindus ; but fuch an in-
tercourfe may be confidered as partial and acci-
dental only ; nor am I more convinced, than I
was fifteen years ago, when I took the liberty
to animadvert on a paffage in the Hiftory of
Prince Kantemir, that the Turks have any
juft reafon for holding the coaft of Temen to be
a part of India, and calling its inhabitants l^ellow
Indians.

The Arabs have never been entirely fubdued ;
nor has any impreflion been made on them, ex-
cept on their borders ; where, indeed, the Phe-
nicians, Perfums, Ethiopians, Egyptians, and, in
modern times, the Othmdn Tartars, have fc-
verally acquired fettlements but, with thefe
exceptions, the natives of Hejdz and Temen have
preferved for ages the foie dominion of their
deferts and pafturcs, their mountains and fertile
• valleys : thus, apart from the reft of mankind,
this extraordinary people have retained their
primitive manners and language, features and
character, as long and as remarkably as the
Hindus themfelves. All the genuine Arabs of

so THE FOURTH DISCOURSE,

Syrid whom I knew in Europe, thofe of Temen,

whom I faw in the We of lEnZudn, whither
many had come from for the purpofe of

trade, and tbofe of Hejdz, whom I have met in
Bernal, form a ftriking contraft to the Hindu
inhabitants of thefe provinces : their eyes are
full of vivacity, their fpeech voluble and articu-
late, their deportment manly and dignified, their
apprehenfion quick, their minds always prefent
and attentive j with a fpirit of independence
appearing in the countenances even of the
loweft among them. Men will always differ in
their ideas of civilization, each meafuring it by
the Habits arid prejudices of his own country ;
but, if courtefy and urbanity, a love of poetry
and eloquence, and the pradlice of exalted vir-
tues be a jufter meafure of perfeft fociety, we
have certain proof, that the people oi ^Arabia,
both on plains and in cities, in republican and
monarchical ftates, were eminently civilized for
many ages before their conqueft of Perjia.

It is deplorable, that the ancient Hiftory of
this majeilick race fliould be as little known in
detail before the time of Dhii Texen, as that of
the Hindus before Vicramaditya j for, although
the vaft hiftoricfd work of ^Inuwairiy and the
Murujuldbabab, or Golden Meadows, of Alma~
Ju^f contain chapters on the kings of Himyar,
GHafan, and Hirab, with lifts of them and

ON THE ARABS.

51

{ketches of their feveral reigns, and although Ge-
nealogical Tables, from which chronology might
be better afcertained, are prefixed to many com-
pofitions of the old Arabian Poets, yet moft ma-
mifcripts are fo incorred, and fo many contra-
didions are found in the heft of them, that we
can fcarce lean upon tradition with fecurity, and
muft have recourfe to the fame media for invef-
tigating the hiftory of the Arabs, that I before
adopted in regard to that of the Indians j name-
ly, their language, letters and religion, their an-
cient monuments, and the certain remains of . their
arts ; on each of which heads I lhall touch very
concifely, having premifed, that my obfervations
will in general be confined to the ftate of Arabia
before that fingular revolution, at the beginning
of the fevenlb century, the effefts of which we
feel at this day from the Pyrenean mountains
and the Danube, to the fartheft parts of the In-
dian Empire, and even to the Eaftern Illands.

I. For the knowledge, which any European,
who pleafes, may attain of the Arabian language,
we are principally indebted to the univerfity of
Leyden ; for, though feveral Italians have afli-
duoufly laboured in the fame wide field, yet the
fruit of their labours has been rendered almoft
ufelefs by more commodious and more accurate
works printed m Holland ; and, though Pocock
certainly accomplilhed much, and was able to

52 THE FOURTH DISCOURSE,

accomplilh any thing, yet the Academical eafe,
which he enjoyed, and his theological purfuits,
induced him to leave unfiniftied the valuable
work of Maiddniy which he had prepared for
publication ; nor, even if that rich mine of Ara-
bian Philology had feen the light, would it have
borne any comparifon with the fifty difl'ertations
of Harir'iy which the firft Schultens

tranflated and explained, though he fent abroad
but few of them, and has left his worthy grand-
fon, from whom perhaps Maiddni alfo may be
expected, the honour of publifliing the reft :
but the palm of glory in this branch of literature
is due to Golius, whofe works are equally pro-
found and elegant ; fo pcrfpicuous in method,
that they may always be confulted without fa-
tigue, and read without languor, yet fo abundant
in matter, that afty man, who lhall begin with
his noble edition of the Grammar compiled by
his maftcr Erpenius, and proceed, with the
help of his incomparable didlionary, to ftudy
his Hiftory of Taimiir by Ihni Arahjhdb, and
ftiall make himfelf complete mafter of that fub-
lime work, will underftand the learned Arabick
better than the deepeft fcholar at Conjlantinople
or at Mecca. The Arabick language, therefore,
is almoft wholly in our power; and, as it is un-
queftionably one of the moft ancient in the world,
fo it yields to none ever fpoken by mortals in

ON THE ARABS.

53

the number of its words and the precifion of its
phrafes ; but it is equally true and wonderful,
that it bears not the leaft refemblance, either in
words or the ftrufturc of them, to the Satifcrity
or great parent of the Indian dialedls ; of which
dillimilarity I will mention two remarkable in-
flances ; the Sanferit, like the Greeks PcrJiaHy
and G. rm delights in compounds, but, in a
much liigher degree, and indeed to fuch excefs,
that i could produce words of more than twenty
fyllahlcs, not formed ludicroufly, like that by
which the buffoon in Aristophanes deferibes
a feaft, but with perfetS ferioufnefs, on the piofl;
folcmn occaflons, and in the moft elegant works;
while the Arabicky on the other hand, and all
its filler dialedts, abhor the compofition of words,
and invariably exprefs very complex ideas by
circumlooLition ; fo that, if a compound word
be found in any genuine language of the Ara-
bian Peninfula, ( zenmerdab for inftance, which
occurs in the Huindjah ) it may at once be pro-
nounced an exotick. Again ; it is the genius
of the Satifcrity and other languages of the fame
flock, that the roots of verbs be almoft univer-
fally biliteraly fo that five and txventy hundred
Inch roots might be formed by the compofition of
fifty Indian letters ; but the Arabick roots
are as univerfally triliteraly fo that the compo-
fition of the twenty-eight Arabian letters would

Si

THE FOURTH DISCOURSE,

give near two and txventy thoufand elements of
the language : and this will demonftrate the fur-
prifing extent of it ; for, although great num-
bers of its roots are confefledly loft, and fome,
perhaps, were never in ufe, yet, if we fuppofe
ten thoufand of them (without rckoning quadri-
litcrals ) to exift, and each of them to admit only
jive variations, one with another, in forming
derivative nouns, even then a perfect Jrabich
didiionary ought to contain jijty thoufand words,
each of which may receive a multitude of
changes by the rules of grammar. The deriva-
tives. in Sanfcrit arc confiderably more numerous:
but a farther comparifon between the two lan-
guages is here unneceflary ; fince, in whatever
light we view them, they feem totally diftindi,
and muft have been invented by two different
races of men ; nor do I recollect a fingle word
in common between them, except SuruJ, the
plural of Siraj, meaning both a lamp and the
Jun, the Sanfcrit name of which is, in Bengal,
pronounced Surja ; and even this refemblance
may be purely accidental. We may eaflly be-
lieve with the Hindus, that not even Indra bim-
felf and his heavenly bands, much lejs any mortal,
ever comprehended in his mind fuch an ocean of
words as their ficred language contains, and
with the Arabs, that no man uninfpired was
ever a complete mafter of Arabick: in fadi no

ON THE ARABS.

perfon, I believe, now living in Europe or
can read without ftudy an hundred couplets to-
gether in any colledion of ancient Arabian
poems ; and we are told, fhat the great autlior
of the Kdmiis learned by accident from the mouth
of a child, in a village of yJrabia, the meaning
of three words which he had long fought in
vain from grammarians, and from books, of the
higheft reputation. It is by approximation
alone, that a knowledge of thefe two venerable
languages can be acquired ; and, with moderate
attention, enough of them both may be known,
to delight and inftrufl; us in an infinite decree:
I conclude tjiis head with remarking, that the
nature of the Ethiopick dialedf feems to prove
an early eftablifliment of the Arabs in part of
Ethiopia, from which they were afterwards ex-
pelled, and attacked even in thtir own country
by the Abyjfinians, who had been invited over
as auxiliaries againft the tyrant of Temen about
a century before the birth ofMuHAMMED.

Of the characters, in which the old com-
pofitions of Arabia were written, we know but
little j except that the Koran originally appeared
in thofe of Cufab^ from which the modern ylra-
bian letters, with 4II their elegant variations,
were derived, and which unqueftionably had a
common origin with the Hebrew or Chaldaick ;
but, as to the Himyarick letters, or thofe which

56 niK FOURTH DISCOURSE,

wc fee mentioned by the name of Jlmufnad, we
are ftill in total darknefs ; the traveller Niebuhr
having been unfortunately prevented from vilit-
ing fome ancient monuments in Temcn^ which
arc faid to have inlcriplions on them : if thofe
letters bear a llrong refemblance to the Nagar'iy
and if a ftory current in India be true, that fome
Hindu merchants heard the Sanferit language
fpoken in Arabia the Happy, we might be con-
firmed in our opinion, that an intercourfe for-
merly fubfiftcd between the two nations of op-
polite coafts, but Ihould have no rcafon to be-
lieve, that they fprang from the fame immediate
llock. The lirll fyllable of Hamyar, as many
Kuropi'iins write it, might perhaps induce an
litymologill to derive the Arabs of Tcmen from
the great anccllor of the Indians ; but we mull
obferve, that lifniyar is t!ie proper appellation of
thofe Arabs', and many rcafons concur to prove,
that the word is •pwxcXy Arabick: the limilarity
of fome proper names on the borders of India to
thofe of Arabia, as the river Arabius, a place
called Araba, a people named Aribes or Arabies,
and another called Sabai, is indeed remarkable,
and may hereafter furnifh me with obfervatlons
of fome importance, but i^ot at all inconfiftent
with my prefent ideas.

II. It is generally alTerted, that the old religion
of the Arabs was entirely Sabian ; but I can

ON THE ARABS.

37

offer fo little accurate information concerning
the Sabian faith, or even the meaning of the
word, that I dare not yet fpeak on the fuh)e<SJ:
with confidence. This at Ica’.l: is certain, that
the people of Tenu'/i very foon fell into the com-
nion, but fatal, errour of adoring the Sun and the
Firmament ; for even the Ibird in defeent from
Yoktan, who was confecpiently as old as Na-
HOR, took the I'urnaine of Audosii ams, or S(T-
vanl of the Sun; and his family, we are ailiircd,
paid particular honours to lliat luminary ; other
tribes worlhippcd the planets and fixed liars ;
but the religion of the poets at leall feeins to
have been pure Theifm ; and this we know with
certainty, becaufe \vc have /trabiiin verfes of
unfufpedlcd antiquity, which contain pious and
elevated fentiments on the goodnefs and jufiice,
the power and omniprefence, oY Allah, or thk
God. If an infeription, faid to have been found
on marble in Temen, be authentick, the ancient
inhabitants of that country preferved the religion
of Eiucr, and profeffed a belief in rniracli's and a
futiirL' Jtate.

We are alfo told, that a ftrong refemblance
may be found between the religions of the pagan
y‘frabs and the Hindus ; but, though this may be
true, yet an agreement in w’orlliipping the fun
and liars will not prove an affinity between the
ttvo nations : the pozerrs of God reprefented as

58

THE FOURTH DISCOURSE,

female deities, the adoration of Jiones, and the
name of the Idol W udd, may lead us indeed to
fufpeft, that feme of the Hindu fuperftitions had
found their way into Jrabia-, and though we
have no traces in Jrabian Hiilory of fuch a
conqueror or legiflator as the great Sesac, who
is faid to have raifed pillars in Yemen as well as
at the mouth of the Ganges, yet, fmee we know,
that Sa'cya is a title of Buddha, whom I fup-
pofe to be Woden, lince Buddha was not a
native of India, and fince the age of Sesac per-
fectly agrees with that of Sa'cya, wc may form
a plaufible conjecture, that they were in faCt the
fame perfon, who travelled eaftward from Etbio^
pia, cither as a warriour or as a lawgiver, about
a tiioufand years before Curist^ and whofe rites
we now fee extended as far as the country of
Nijou, or, as the Cbinefe call it, Japuen, both
words fignifying the Rifing Sun. Sa'cya may
be derived from a word meaning />owcr, or from
another denoting vegetable food’, fo that this
epithet will not determine, whether he was a
hero or a philofopher ; but the title Buddha, or
ulje, may induce us to believe, that he was ra-
ther a benefactor, than a deftroyer, of his fpe-
cies : if his religion, howeyer, was really in-
troduced into any part of Arabia, it could not
have been general in that country ; and we may
fafely pronounce, that before the Mohammedan

ON THE ARABS.

59

revolution, the noble and learned Arabs were
'rheifts, but that a ftupid idolatry prevailed
among the lower orders of the people.

I find no trace among them, till their emi-
gration, of any Philofophy but Ethicks j and
even their fyftem of morals, generous and en-
larged as it feems to have been in the minds of
a few illuftrious chieftains, was on the whole
miferably depraved for a century at leafi: before
MuuaMMkd : the difiinguifhing virtues, which
they boafted of Inculcating and praeSlifing, were
a contempt of riches and even of death ; but, in
the age of the Seven Poets, their liberality had
deviated into mad profufion, their courage into
ferocity, and their patience into an obftinatc
fpirit of encountering fruitlefs dangers ; but I
forbear to expatiate on the manners of the Arabs
in that age, bccaufe the pocms,'*entitled AlmodU
lakdt, which have appeared in our own language,
exhibit an exafl: piiflure of their virtues and their
vices, their wifdom and their folly ; and fhow
what may be couftantly expelled from men of
open hearts and boiling paflions, with no law to
control, and little religion to reftrain, them.

■ III. Few monuments of antiquity are pre-
ferved in Arabia, and of thole fpw the beft ac-
counts are very uncertain ; but we are alTured,
that inferiptions on rocks and mountains arc
ftill feen in various parts of the Peninfula ;

VOL. T. o

60 THE FOURTH DISCOURSE,

which, if they are in any known language, and
if corredl copies of them can be procured, may
be dccyphered by eafy and infallible rules.

The firfl Albert Schultens has preferved
in his Ancient Memorials of jirabia^ the moft
pleafing of all his works, two little poems in an
clcgiack ftrain, which are faid to have been found,
about the middle of the feventh century, on fome
fragments of ruined edifices in Hadramul near
/IdeHj and are fuppofed to be of an indefinite,
but very remote, age. It may naturally be afk-
cd : In what cliaratflers w'cre they written ?
Who dccyphered them ? Why were not the ori-
ginal letters preferved in the book, wdicre the
verfes are cited ? What became of the marbles,
which Abdurrahman, then governor of Temm,
moft probably font to the KhalJjah at Bagdad ?
If they be genuine, they prove the people of
li men to have been ‘ herdfmen and warriours,
‘ inhabiting a fertile and well-watered country
‘ full of game, and near a fine fea abounding
‘ with fifli, under a monarchical government,
‘ and drelfed In green lilk or veils of needlework,’
either of their own manuladurc or imported
from India. The meafure of thefe verfes is per-
fedlly regular, and the dialedl undiftinguifhable,
at leaft by me, from that of Kuraijh ; fo that,
if the Arabian writers were much addidted to
literary impoftures, I fliould ftrongly fufped

ON THE ARABS.

Cl

them to be modern compofitions on the infta-
bility of human greatnefs, and the confequenccs
of irreligion, illuftrated by the example of the
Himyarick princes ; and -the fame may be ful-
pedod of the firft poem quoted by Schulte ns,
which he afcribes to an Jrab in the age of
Solomon.

The fuppofcd houfes of the people called
Thamtid are alfo ftill to be fecn in excavations
of rocks; and, in the time of Tabrizi the
Grammarian, a caftle was extant in Yemerif
which bore the name of Aladbat, an old bard
and warriour, who firft, we are told, formed his
army, thence called dlkhaTnis\ in Jive parfs, by
which arrangement he defeated the troops of
Himyar in an expedition againft Sanaa.

Of pillars ereded by Sesac, after his inva-
fion of Temeny we find no mention in Arabian
hiftories'; and, perhaps, the ftory has no more
foundation than another told by the Greeks and
adopted by Newton, that the Arabs worfliipped
Urania, and even Bacchus by name, which,
they fay, means great in Arabick : but where
they found fuch a word, we cannot difeover : it
.is true, that Beccah fignifies a great and tumul-
tuous crowd, and, in this fenfc, is one name of
the facred city commonly called Meccah.

The Cdbab, or quadrangular edifice at Mec~
cabf is indifputably fo ancient, that its original

G 2

62 THE FOURTH DISCOURSE,

ufe, and the name of its builder, are loft in a
cloud of idle traditions. An Arab told me
gravely, that it was railed by Abraham, who,
as I afllired him, was never there : others afcribe
it, with more probability, to Ismail, or one of
his immediate defendants ; but whether it was
built as a place of divine worfhip, as a fortrefs, as
a fepulchre, or as a monument of the treaty be-
tween the old pofleflbrs of Arabia and the fons
of Ki D A R, antiquaries may difputc, but no mor-
tal can determine. It is thought by Reland
to have been the manjion of fome ancient Pa-
triarch, and revered on that account by bis pof-
ierity, but the room, in which we now are af-
feinbled, would contain the whole Arabian edi-
fice ; and, if it were large enough for the dwell-
ing-houfe of a patriarchal family, it would feem
ill adapted Lo the paftoral manners of the Keda-
rites : a Pcrfian author infifts, that the true
name of Meccah is Mabcadah, or the Temple of
the Moon ; but, although we may fmile at his
etymology, we cannot but think it probable,
that the Cdbab was originally dcligned for reli-
gious purpofes. Three couplets are cited in an
Arabick Hiftory of this Building, which, from
their extreme fimplicity, have Icfs appearance of
impofture than other verfes of tlic fame kind :
they arc aferibed to Asad, a Tobbd, or king by
fucceffion, who is generally allowed to have reign-

ON THE ARABS.

63

ed in Yemen an hundred and twenty-eight years
before Christas birth, and they commemorate,
without any poetical imagery, the magnificence
of the prince in covering the holy temple with
Jlriped cloth and Jine linen, and hi making keys
for its gate. This temple, however, the fanctity
of which was reflored by Muhammkd, had
been ftrangely profaned at the time of his birth,
when it was ufual to decorate its walls with
poems on all fubjedts, and often on the triumphs
of Arabian gallantry and the praifes of Grecian
wine, which the merchants of Syria brought for
fale into the deferts.

From the want of materials on the fubjedf of
Arabian antiquity, we find it very difficult to fix
the Chronology of the IJmaililes with accuracy
beyond the time of A on an, from whom the
impoftor was defeended in the twenty-firjl de-
gree} and, although we have genealogies of
Alkamah and other Himyarick bards as high
as the thirtieth degree, or for a period of nine
hundred years at leaft, yet we can hardly depend
on them fo far, as to eftablifh a complete chro-
nological fyftcm : by reafoning downwards, how-
ever, we may afeertain fome points of confider-
able importance. The univerfal tradition of
Yemen is, that Yoktan, the fon of Eber, firft
fettled his family in that country' ; which fettlc-
ment, by the computation admitted in Europe,

6* THE Fourth discourse,

mull have been above three tboufand fix hundred
years ago, and nearly at the time, when the
Hindus, under the condu<9; of Rama, were fub-
duing the firll inhabitants of thefe regions, and
extending the Indian Empire from Ayodhya or
Audh as far as the ille of Sinhal or Sildn. Ac-
cording to this calculation, Nuuman, king of
Yemen in the ninth generation from Eber, was
contemporary with Joseph; and, if a verfe
compofed by that prince, and quoted by A bul-
ked a, was really preferved, as it might eafily
have, been, by oral tradition, it proves the great
antiquity of the Arabian language and metre.
This is a literal verfion of the couplet : ‘ When
* thou, who art in power, condudleft affairs with
‘ courtefy, thou attaineft the high honours of
‘ thofe, who are moll exalted, and whofe man-
‘ dates are' obeyed.’ We are told, that, from an
elegant verb in this diftich, the royal poet ac-
quired the furname of Almuddfer, or the Coi/r-
teous. Now the rcafons for believing this verfe
genuine are its brevity, which made it eafy to
be remembered, and the good fenfe comprized
in it, which made it become proverbial ; to
which we may add, that the dialed is apparently
old, and differs in three words from the idiom
of Hejdz: the reafons for doubting are, that
fentences and verfes of indefinite antiquity are
fpmetimes aferibed by the Arabs to particular

ON THE ARABS.

Cj

perfons of eminence ; and they even go fo far
as to cite a pathetick elegy of Adam himfelf on
the death of Abel, but in very good j^rabick
and correct meafure. Such are the doubts,
which necelTarily muft arife on fucli a fubjcd: ;
yet we have no need of ancient monuments or
traditions to prove all that our analyfis requires,
namely, that the Arabs, both of llejaz and
Yemen, fprang from a ftock entirely different
from that of the Hindus, and that their firft ella-
blifhments in the refpeilivc countries, where we
now find them, were nearly coeval.

I cannot finifh this article without obferving,
that, when the King of Denmark's miniftefs in-
flruded the Daniflj travellers to colledl: hijlorical
books in Arabick, but not to bul'y thcrafelves
with procuring Arabian poems, tfiey certainly
w^ere ignorant, that the only monuments of old
Arabian Hiftory are collections of poetical pieces
and the commentaries on them ; that all memo-
rable tranfa£tions in Arabia were recorded in
verfe ; and that more certain fadts may be known
by reading the Hamafab, the Diwan of Hudhail,
and the valuable work of Obaidullah, than by
turning over a hundred volumes in profe, unicfs
indeed thofe poems are cited by the hiflorians as
their authories.

J V. The manners of the Hejdzi Arabs, which

66

THE FOURTH DISCOURSE,

have continued, we know, from the time of So*.
LOMON to the prefent age, were by no means
favourable to the cultivation of arts ; and, as to
JcienceSy we have no reafon to believe, that they
were acquainted with any ; for the mere amufe-
ment of giving names to ftars, which were ufe-
ful to them in their pafloral or predatory rambles
through the deferts, and in their obfervations on
the weather, can hardly be confidered as a ma-
terial part of aftronomy. The only arts, in
which they pretended to excellence (I except
horfemanfhip and military accomplifhments)
•were poetry and rbetorick: that we have none
pf their coinpofitions in profe before the Korariy
may be aferibed, perhaps, to the little fkill, which
they feem to have had, in writing ; to their pre-
diledion in favour of poetical meafurc, and to
the facility, with which verfes are committed to
memory ; but all their ftories prove, tiiat they
were eloquent in a high degree, and poflefled
wonderful powers of fpeaking without prepa-
ration in flowing and forcible periods. I have
never been able to difeover, what was meaned
by their books, called Raivds'm^ but fuppofe,
that they were colledions of their common, or
cuftomary, law. Writing was fo little pradifed
among them, tHat their old poems, which are
now acceflible to us, may almofl be confidered

ON THE ARABS.

67

as originally unwritten ; and I am inclined to
think, that Samuel Johnson’s reafoning, on
the extreme imperfedion of unwritten lan-
guages, was too general ; fince a language, that
is only fpoken, may neverthelefs be highly po-
lifhed by a people, who, like the ancient Arabs,
make the improvement of their idiom a national
concern, appoint folemn aflemblies for the pur-
pofe of difplaying their poetical talents, and hold
it a duty to exercife their children in getting by
heart their moft approved compofitions.

The people of Yemen had poflibly more me-
chanical arts, and, perhaps, more fcie.ncc', but,
although their ports muft have been the empbria
of confiderable commerce between Egypt and
India or part of Perjia, yet we have no certain
proofs of their proficiency in navigation or even
in manufadures. That the Areibs of the defert
had mufic’al inftruments, and names for the dif-
ferent notes, and that they were greatly delight-
ed with melody, we know from themfelves ;
but their lutes and pipes were probably very
fimple, and their mufick, I fufped, was little
more than a natural and tuneful recitation of
their elegiack verfes and love-fongs. The An-
gular property of their language, in ihunning

I f

compound words, may be urged, according to
Bacon’s idea, as a proof, that they had made

«8 THE FOURTH DISCOURSE,

no progrefs in arts, * which require, fays he, a

* variety of combinations to exprefs the com-

* plex notions arifing from them but the fin~
gularity may perhaps be imputed wholly to the
genius of the language, and the tafte of thofe,
who fpoke it ; lince the old Germans, who knew
no art, appear to have delighted in compound
words, which poetry and oratory, one would
conceive, might require as much as any meaner
art whatfoever.

So great, on the whole, was the ftrength of
parts or capacity, either natural or acquired from
habit, for which the Arabs were ever diftinguifli-
cd, that we cannot be furprized, when we fee
that blaze of genius, which they difplayed, as far
as their arms extended, when they burft, like
their own dyke of Arim, through their ancient
limits, and fpread, like an inundation, over the
great empire of Irhu That a race of Tdzis, or
Coiirfcrs as the Perfians call them, ‘ who drank

* the milk of camels and fed on lizards, fliould
‘ entertain a thought of fubduing the kingdom
‘of Feridun’ was confidered by the General
of Yezdegird’s army as the ftrongeft inftance
of fortune’s levity and mutability ; but Fir-
dausi, a complete mafter of AJiatick manners,
and Angularly impartial, reprefents the Arabs,
even in the age of Feridun, as ‘ difclaiming

ON THE ARABS.

€9

* any kind of dependence on that monarch, exult-
^ ing in their liberty, delighting in eloquence,
' a£ts of liberality^ and martial achievements,

■ and thus making the whole earth, fays the poet,
‘ red as wine with the blood of their foes, and
‘ the air like a foreft of canes with their tall
‘ I'pears.’ With fuch a charadler they were
likely to conquer any country, that they could
invade ; and, if Alexander had invaded their
dominions, they would unqucftionably have
made an obftinate, and probably a fuccefsful,
refiftance.

But I have detained you too long, gentlemen,
with a nation, who have ever been my favourite?,
and hope at our next anniverfary meeting to travel
with you over a part of ylfia, which exhibits a
race of men diftinft both from the Hindus and
from the Arabs, In the mean, time it lhall be
my care to fuperintend the publication of your
tranfadtions, in which, if the learned in Europe
have not raifed their expedations too high, they
will not, 1 believe, be difappointed ; my own
imperfeft eflays I always except ; but, though
my other engagements have prevented my at-
tendance on your fociety for the greateft part
of lad: year, and I have fet an example of that
freedom from reftraint, without which no fo-
ciety can flourifh, yet, as my few hours of leifure

70 THE FOURTH DISCOURSE, See.

will now be devoted to Sanferit literature, I can-
not but hope, though my chief objedl be a
knowledge of Hindu Law, to make fome difeo-
very in other fciences, which I fhall impart with
humility, and which you will, I doubt not, re-
ceive with indulgence.

THE FIFTH

ANNIVERSAllV DISCOURSE,

DF-I.IVERED 21 FEBRUARY, 17t(.S.

IHE PRESIDENT,

At the clofe of my laft addrefs to you, Gen-
tlemen, I declared my defign of introducing’ to
your notice a people of who feemcd as dif-
ferent in moft refpedfs from the Hindus and
ylrabSy as thofe two nations had been fhown to
differ from each other ; I meaned the’ people,
whom we ‘call Tartars: but I enter with ex-
treme diffidence on my prefent fubjedt, becaufe
I have little knowledge of the Tartarian dialedls ;
and the grofs errours of European writers on
AJiaiick literature have long convinced me, that
no fatisfadlory account can be given of any na-
tion, with whofe language we are not perfedily
acquainted. Such evidence, however, as I have
procured by attentive reading and fcrupulous in-
quiries, I will now lay before you, interfperfing
fuch remarks as I could not but make on that

r2

THE FIFTH DISCOURSE,

evidence, and fubmitting the whole to your Im-
partial decifion.

Conformably to the method before adopted in
defcribing Arabia and India, I confider Tartary
alfo, for the purpofe of this difcourfe, on its moft
cxtenfive fcale, and requeft your attention, whilfl.
1 trace the largeft boundaries that are affignable
to it : conceive a line drawn from the mouth
of the Oby to that of the Dnieper, and, bringing
it back caftward acrofs the Faixine, fo as to in-
clude the pcninfula of Krim, extend it along the
foot of Caucafus, by the rivers Cur and Aras, to
the Cajpian lake, from the oppofite Ihore of
which follow the courfe of the Jaihu/i and the
chain of Caucafean hills as fir as thofe of Imaus:
whence continue the line beyond the ChineJ'e
wall to the White Mountain and the country of
Tetjo ; fkirting the borders of Perjia, Indiat
China, Corea, but including part of Rujfia, with
all the diftriefs which lie between the Glacial
fca, and that of Japan. M. De Guicjnes,
wliofe great w’ork on the Huns abounds more in
folid learning than in rhetorical ornaments, pre-
fonts us, however, with a magnificent image of
this wide region ; defcribing it as a ftupendous
edifice, the beams and pillars of which are many
ranges of lofty hills, and the dome, one pro-
digious mountain, to which the Chinefe give the
epithet of Celejlial, with a confiderable number

ON THE TARTARS.

TS

of broad rivers flowing down its fides : if the
manfion be fo amazingly fublime, the land
around it is proportionahly extended, but more
wonderfully diverfified ; for fomc parts of it are
incruftcd with ice, others parched with inflamed
air and covered with a kind of lava ; here we
meet with immenfe tradfs of fandy deferts and
forcits almofl. impenetrable ; there, with gardens,
groves, and meadows, perfumed with mufk,
watered by mimherlefs rivulets, and abounding
in fruits aud flowers ; and, from eaft to well,
lie many coubderable provinces, which appear
as valleys in comparifon of the hills towering
above them, but in truth are the flat fummits of
the highell mountains in the world, or at leaft
the higheft in AJia. Near one fourth in latitude
of this extraordinary region is in the fame charm-
ing climate with Gret'ce, Italy, and Ilroveuci ’ ;
and another fourth in that of Etjgland, Ger-
many, and the northern parts of France ; but
the Hyperborean countries can have few beauties
.to recommend them, at lead in the prefent ftatc
of the earth’s temperature : to the fouth, on the
frontiers of Iran are the beautiful vales of Sogbd
vyith the celebrated cities of Samarkand and
Bokhara on thofe of Tibet are the territories of
Cajhgbar, Khoten, Chegil and KBdtd, all famed
for perfumes and for the beauty of their iii-
habirants j and on thofe of China lies the conn-

THE FIFTH DISCOURSE,

try of Chin, anciently a powerful kingdom, which
name, like that of Kbdtti, has in modern times
been given to the whole Chinefe empire, where
fuch an appellation would be thought an infult.
We muft not omit the fine territory of Tanciit^
which was known to the Greeks by the name of
Serica, and confidered by them as the fartheft
eaftern extremity of the habitable globe.

Scythia feems to be the general name, which
the ancient Europeans gave to as much as they
knew of the country thus bounded and de-
feribed; but, whether that word be derived, as
Pliny feems to intimate, from Sacai, a people
kno'wn by a fimilar name to the Greeks and
Perfians^ or, as Bryant imagines, from Cuthia,
or, as Colonel Vallancey believes, from
words denoting navigatiotiy or, as it might have
been fuppofed,, from a Greek root implying
xeraib and ferocity, this at leaf!; is certain, that
as hidiay China, Perjia, 'Japan, are not appella*
tions of thofe countries in the languages of the
nations, who inhabit them, fo neither Scythia
nor Tartary are names, by which the inhabit-
ants of the country now under our confider-
ation have ever diftinguifhed themfelves. Ta-
ta rijlan is, indeed, a word ufed by the Perfians
for the fouth-weftern part of Scythia, where the
mufk-deer is faid to be common ; and the name
Tatar is by fomc confidered as that of a parti-

ON THE TARTARS.

cular tribe ; by others, as that of a fmall river
only; while Tiirm^ as oppofed to Iran, feems
to mean the ancient dominion of Afra'sia'b to
the north and eaft of the Oxus. There is no-
thing more idle than a debate concerning names,
which after all are of little confequence, when
our ideas are diftindf without them : having
given, therefore, a corredl notion of the country,
which 1 propofcd to examine, I fliall not feru-
ple to call it by the general name of TarUiry ;
though I am confeious of ufmg a term equally
improper in the pronunciation and the applica-
tion of it.

Tartary then, whicli contained, according to
Pliny, an innumcrahh’ muliilude of nations, by
whom the rcR of Afia and all Europe has in
different ages been over-run, is denominated, as
various images have prel'cnted thcnifelves to va-
rious fancies, the great hive of the northern
fwarms, the nurfery of irrejifible legions, and,
by a ftronger mct;iphor, the Joundery rf the hu-
man race’, but M. Baili.y, a wonderfully inge-
nious man and a very lively writer, feems firft
to have confidered it as the cradle of our fpecics,
and to have fupported an opinion, that the
whole ancient wori^ was enlightened by fei-
ences brought from the moft northern parts of
Scythia, particularly from the banks of the
'jenifea, or from the Hyperborean regions : all

VOL. I.

II

76 THE FIFTH DISCOURSE, ,

the fables of old Greece^ I/idia, he

derives from the north ; and it muft be owned,
that he maintains his paradox with acutenefs
and learning. Great learning and great acute-
nefs, together with the charms of a moll engag-
ing ftyle, were indeed ncceflary to render even
tolerable a fyftera, which places an earthly pa-
radife, the gardens of HefperuSy the iflands of
the Macarea^ the groves of Elyjium, if not of
Edcti, the heaven of In dr A, the Perijian, or
fairy-land, of the Pcrfian poets, with its city of
diamonds and its country of Shddcam, fo named
from Plc.afure and Lov<:, not in any climate,
which the common fenfe of mankind confiders
as the feat of delights, but beyond the mouth of
the Oby, in the Frozen Sea, in a region equalled
only by that, where the wild imagination of
Dante led •him to fix the worft of criminals
in a ftate of pimifhment after death, and of
which he could Jiot, he fays, even think xvithout
Jlnvering. A very curious paffage in a tra£t of
Peutarch on the figure in the Moon’s orb,
naturally induced M. Bailly to place Ogygia
in the north, and he concludes that ifland, as
others have concluded rather fallacioully, to be
the Atlantis of Plato, but is at a lofs to deter-
mine, whether it was Jfeland or Greenland,
Spitzberg or Nerv Zembla: among fo many
charms it was difficult, indeed, to give a pre-

ON THE TARTARS.

77

ference ; but our philofopher, though as much
perplexed by an option of beauties as the fhep-
herd of Ida, feemson the whole to think Zembla
the moft worthy of the golden fruit ; becaufe it
is indifputably an ifland, and lies oppofite to a
gulph near a continent, from which a great
number of rivers defeend into the ocean. He
appears equally diftrefled among five nations,
real and imaginary, to fix upon that, which the
Greeks named Atlantes ; and his conclufion in
both cafes muft remind us of the Ihowman at
Eton, who, having pointed out in his box all
the crowned heads of the world, and being afk-
ed by the fchoolboys, who looked through the
glafs, which was the Emperor, which the Pope,
which the Sultan, and which the Great Mogul,
anfwered eagerly, ‘ which you pleafe, young
‘ gentlemen, which you pleafe.’ His letters,
however, to Voltaire, in which he unfolds
his new fyftem to his friend, w'hom he had not
been able to convince, are by no means to be
derided ; and his general propofition, that arts
and fclences had their fource in Tartary, de-
ferves a longer examination than can be given
bo it in this difeourfe : I fhall, neverthelefs, with
your permiffion, Ihortly difeufs the queftion
under the feveral heads, that will prefent them-
felves in order.

Although we may naturally fuppofe, that the

H 2

'JS THE FIFTH DISCOURSE,

numbcrlefs communities of Tartars, fome of
whom arc cflabliflied in great cities, and fome
encamped on plains in ambulatory manfions,
which they remove from pafture to pafture, muft.
be as different in their features as in their dia-
lects, yet, among thofe who have not emigrated
into another country and mixed with another
nation, we may difeern a family likenefs, ef-
pccially in their eyes and countenance, and in
that conliguration of lineaments, which we ge-
nerally call a Tartar face ; but, without making
anxious inquiries, whether all the inhabitants of
the yaft region before deferibed have limilar
features, we may conclude from thofe, whom we
have feen, and from the original portraits of
Taimu K and his defendants, that the 7'artars
in general differ wholly in complexion and
countenance froth the Hindus and from the
Arabs-, an obfervation, which tends in fome
degree to confirm the account given by modern
Tartars thcmfelves of their defeent from a com-
mon anceftor. Unhappily their lineage cannot
be proved by authcntick pedigrees or hiftorical
monuments ; for all their writings extant, even
thofe in the Mogul dialed, are long fubfequent
to the time of Mufiammea^ nor is it poflible
to (^inguifh their genuine traditions from thofe
of the Arabs, whofe religious opinions they have
in general adopted. At the beginning of the

ON THE TARTARS.

79

fourteenth centuiy, Khu’djah Rashi'd, furnam-
ed Fad'lu’llah, a native of Kuzvin \ compiled
his account of the Tartars and Mongals from
the papers of one Pu la'd, whom the great
grandlon of Holacu' had fent into Tdtdrijldn
for the foie purpofc of collc6ting hiftorical in-
formation ; and the commiflion itfelf (hows, how
little the Tartarian Princes really knew of their
own origin. Prom this work of Rashi d, and
from other materials, ABu’LGHA '/.t , King of
Khuu'irezm, compofcd in the Mogul language
his Genealogical Hijlory, which, having - been
purchafcd from a merchant of Jiokhdrd by fome
Su’edijh officers, prifoners of war in Siberia, has
found its way into fcvcral European tongues : it
contains much valuable matter, but, like all Mu-
ll ammedan hillories, exhibits tribes or nations
as indivicjual fovereigns ; and, if Baron De Tott
had not ftrangely negleded to procure a copy
of the Tartai'ian hiftory, for the original of
which he unncceflarily offered a large fum, we
fliould probably have found, that it begins with
an account of the deluge taken from the Kordii^
and proceeds to rank Tunc, Chin, Tatar,
and Mongal, among the fons of Ya'fet. The
genuine traditional diiftory of the Tartars, in all
the books that I have infpedted, feems to begin
withOoHU Z, as that of the Hindus does with
Ra ma : they place their miraculous Hero and

50

THE FIFTH DISCOURSE,

Patriarch four thoufand years before Cheng iz
Khan, who was born in the year 1164, and
with whofe reign their hiftorical period com-
mences. It is rather furprizing, that M. B ailly,
who makes frequent appeals to Etymological
arguments, has not derived Ogyges from
Oghu'x and Atlas from Altai, or the Golden
mountain of I'artary: the Greek terminations
might have been rejedted from both words ; and
a mere tranfpofition of letters is no difficulty
with an Etymologift.

My remarks in this addrefs, gentlemen, will
be confined to the period preceding Chengiz ;
and, although the learned labours of M. De
Guignes and the fathers Visdelou, Dema-
ILLA, and Gaubil, who have made an incom-
parable ufe of xhtixChinefe literature, exhibit pro-
bable accounts of* the Tartars from a very early
age, yet the old hiftorians of China were not only
foreign, but generally hoftile, to them, and for
both thofe reafons, either through ignorance or
malignity, may be fufpedted of mifreprefenting
their tranfaiSions : if they fpeak truth, the an-
cient hiftory of the Tartars prefents us, like
moft other hiftories, with a feries of aflaffina-
tions, plots, treafons, maffacres, and all the na-
tural fruits of felfiffi ambition. I ffiould have
no inclination to give you a fketch of fuch hor-
rors, even if the occafion called for it ; and will

ON THE TARTARS.

81

barely obferve, that tlie firft king of the Hyimmu's
or began his reign, according to Visdelou,
about three tbouf and Jive hundred and Jixty years
ago, not long after the time fixed in my former
difcourfes for the firft regular eftablifhments of
the Hindus and Arabs in their fevcral countries.

I. Our firft inquiry, concerning the languages
and letters of the Tartars, prefents us with a de-
plorable void, or with a profpeft as barren and
dreary as that of their deferts. The Ta?'tars, in
general, had no literature : (in this point all au-
thorities appear to concur) the Turcs had no let-
ters : the Huns, according to Procopius, .had
not even heard of them : the magnificent CiiEX-
Giz, whofe Empire included an area of near
eighty fquare degrees, could find none of his
own Mongals, as the beft authors inform us,
able to write his dil'patches ; and Tai'mu'r, a
favage of ftrong natural parts and paffionately
fond of hearing hiftories read to him, could him-
fclf neither write nor read. It is true, that Ibnu
Arabsiiah mentions a fet of charadlers called
Dilberjhi, which w'ere ufed in Khdtd : ‘ he had
‘ feen them, he fays, and found them to confift
‘ of forty-one letters, a diftin6t fymbol being ap-
* propriated to each* long and fhbrt vowel, and
‘ to each confonant hard or foft, or otherwife
‘ varied in pronunciation but Khdtd was in
fouthern Tartary on the confines of India ; and,

82

THE FIFTH DISCOURSE,

from his defcription of the charadlers there in
ufe, we cannot but fufpedt them to have been
thofe of Tibet, which are manifeftly Indian,
bearing a greater refemblance to thofe of Ben-
gal than to Devanagari. The learned and elo-
quent Arab adds, ‘ that the Tatars of Khdtd

* write, in the Dilberjin letters, all their tales and

* hiftories, their journals, poems, and mifcel-

* lanies, their diplomas, records of ftate and juf-

* tice, the laws of Chengiz, their publick re-
‘ gifters and their compofitions of every fpccies:’
if this be true, the people of Kbdid muft have
beep a poliflied and even a lettered nation ; and
it may be true, without affeding the general
pofition, that the Tartars were illiterate; but
Ib-nu ArAbsha'h was a profefl'cd rhetorician,
and it is impoflible to read the original pafTage,
without full conviction that his objeCl.in writing
it, was to difplay his power of w’^ords in a flow-
ing and modulated period. He fays further,
that in Jagbatdi the people of Oigbitr, as he
calls them, ‘ have a fyftem of fourteen letters
‘ only, denominated from themfelves Oigburi j’
and thofe are the characters, which the Mongols
are fuppofed by moft authors to have borrowed :
Abu'l’ghazi'* tells us onl)», that Chengiz em-
ployed the natives of Eigbiir as excellent pen-
men ; but the Chineje alTert, that he was forced
to employ them, becaufe he had no writers at all

ON THE TARTARS.

8!i

among his natural-born fubjeds; and we are
aflured by many, that Kublaikha'n ordered
letters to be invented for his nation by a Tihe-
tian, whom he rewarded with the dignity of
chief Lama. The fmall number of Eighuri let-
ters might induce us to believe, that they were
Zend or Pablav), wdiich muft have been current
in that country, when it was governed by the
fons of Fkridu'n; and, if the alphabet aferibed
to the Eigburians by M. Des Hautes raves
be correct, we may fafely decide, that in many
of its letters it refembles both the Zend and the
Syriack, with a remarkable difference in the
mode of conneding them ; but, as we can fcarce
hope to fee a genuine fpecimen of them, our
doubt muft remain in regard to their form and
origin: the page, exhibited by Hyde as Kba-
tdyan w^riting, is evidently a fort of broken
Ci'ijick ; and the line manufeript at Oxford, from
which it was taken, is more probably a Mendean
w^ork on fome religious fubjed than, as he ima-
gined, a code of Tartarian hws. 'I’hat very
learned man appears to have made a worfe mif-
take in giving us for Mongal charaders a page
of writing, which has the appearance of "Ja-
panefc, or mutilated Chinefe, letters.

If the Tartars in general, as we have every
reafon to believe, had no written memorials, it
cannot be thought wonderful, that their lan^

n-i THE Firm DISCOURSE,

gihiges, like thofe of America, fhould have been
ia perpetual fluctuation, and that more than fifty
dialects, as Hydk had been credibly informed,
fliould be fpoken between Mofcoiv and China, by
the many kindred tribes or their feveral branches,
which are enumerated by Auu ’lgh a'zi'. What
thofe diaieCts are, and whether they really fprang
from a common flock, we fliall probably learn
from Mr. Pallas, and other indefatigable men
employed by the Rujftan court ; and it is from
the Riijlians, that w e muft expeCt the mofl ac-
curate information concerning their Afialick
fubjeCts : I perfuade myfclf, that, if their in-
quiries be judicioufly made and faithfully re-
ported, the rcfult of them will prove, that all
the languages properly Tartarian arofe from one
common fource ; excepting always the jargons
of fuch w'andcreft or mountaineers, as^ having
long been divided from the main body of the
nation, muft in a courfc of ages have framed fe-
parate idioms for thcmfclves. The only T'ar-
tarian language, of which I have any know-
ledge, is the Turkijb of Conjlnntinople, which is
however fo copious, that whoever fhall know it
pcrfcClly, will calily underftaud, as we are aflTured
by intelligent authors, the diaJeCls of Tatarijlati',
and we may colleCl from Ahu lgiia zi', that he
W'ould find little difficulty in the Cahnac and the
Mogul : I will not oftend your ears by a dry ca-

ON THE TARTARS. ■

85

talogue of fiinilar words in thofe different Ian'"
guages i but a careful inveftigation has convinced
me, that, as the Indian and Arabian tongues are
feverally defeended from a' common parent, fo
thofe of Tartary might be traced to one ancient
flem effcntially differing from the two others. It
appears, indeed, from a ftory told by Abu ’l-
gha'zi', that the Virdis and the Mongals could
not underftand each other ; but no more can the
Danes and the EngliJ}.), yet their dialcds beyond
a doubt arc branches of the fame Guthick tree.
The dialect of the Moguls, in which fomc hiflo-

rles of Taimu'k and his defeendants were ori-

*

ginally compofed, is called in India, where a
learned native let me right when I uled another
w'ord, Turd ; not that it is precil'ely the fame
w'ith the TurkiJJj of the Othmdnlu s, but the two
idioms differ, perhaps, lei's thftn Swedijh and
German, or Spanijb and Porluguefe, and cer-
tainly lefs than IFelcb and Irijh : in hope of af-
certaining this point, I have long fcarched in
vain for the original works aferibed to Taimur
and Ba ber ; but all the Moguls, with whom I
have converfed in this country, refemble the
drow in one of their popular fables, who, having
long affeded to wall^ like a phealant, was unable
after all to acquire the graccfulncfs of that ele-
gant bird, and in the mean time unlearned his

86 THE FIIT'H DISCOURSE,

ov/n natural gait : they have not learned the dia*
le^l of Perfidy but have wholly forgotten that of
their anceftors. A very confiderable part of the
Old Tartarian language, which in jifia would
probably have been loft, is happily preferved in
Europr ; and, if ihe groundwork of the weftern
Turkifh, when feparated from the Perjian and
Arabick^ with which it is embellifhcd, be a
branch of the loft ( )ghuzian tongue, I can aflert
with confidence, that it has not the Icaft refem-
blance cither to Arahick or Sanjerit, and muft
have been invented by a race of men wholly
diftincl from the Arabs or Hindus. This fa£t
;ilone overfets the fyftem of M. B a illy, who
confiders the Sanferit, of which he gives in fe-
veral places a moft erroneous account, as ‘ a ft nr.
‘ momnneni of his primeval Scythians, the precep-

* tors of mankind and planters of a fublinie phi-

* hfopby even in India for he holds it an incon-
tcftable truth, that a language, which is dead,
Juppofes a nation, which is dejlroyed; and he
feems to think fuch reafoning perfedly decifive
of the queftion, without having rccourfe to aftro-
nomical arguments or the fpirit of ancient infti-
tutions : for my part, I defire no better proof
than that, which the language of the Brahmans
affords, of an immemorial and total difference
between the Savages of the Mountains, as the old

ON THE TARTARS.

n

Chhii’fe juftly called the Tartars^ and the ftu-
dious, placid, contemplative inhabitants of thefe
Indian plains.

n. The rcafoning ofM. Bailly
may, perhaps, be thought equally lhallow, if not
ioconfiftent in fome degree with itfclf. ‘ An
‘ adoration of the fun and of fire, fays he, mull
‘ necelfarily have arifen in a cold region : therc-
‘ fore, it muft have been foreign to India, Per-
^ Jia, Arabia-, therefore, it muft have been de-
‘ rived from Tartary.' No man, I believe, who
has travelled in winter through Eahdr, or'has
even palled a cold fcafon at Calcutta within ,thc
tropick, can doubt that the folar warmth is often
defirable by all, and might have been conlidcred
as adorable by the ignorant, in thefe climates, or
that the return of fpring deferves all the faluta-
tions, which it receives from the Perjian and
Indian poets; not to rely on certain hiftorical
evidence, that Antarah, a celebrated warriour
and bard, actually periftied with cold on a moun-
tain of Arabia. To meet, however, an objec-
tion, which might naturally be made to the vo-
luntary fettlement, and amazing population, of
his primitive race in the icy regions of the north,
he takes refuge in tha hypothelis df M. Buffon,
v,rho imagines, that our whole globe was at firft
of a white heat, and has been gcadually cooling
from the poles to the equator j fo that the Ify-

8$

THE FIFTH DISCOURSE,

ferborean countries had once a delightful tem-*
perature, and Siberia itfelf was even hotter than
the climate of our temperate zones, that is, was in
too hot a climate, by his firft propofition, for the
primary worfhip of the fun. That the tempe-
rature of countries has not fuftained a change in
the lapfe of ages, I will by no means infill ; but
we can hardly reafon conclulively from a va-
riation of temperature to the cultivation and dif-
fufion of fcience : if as many female elephants
and tigrefles, as we now find in Bengal, had
formerly littered in the Siberian forells, and if
their young, as the earth cooled, had fought a
genial warmth in the climates of the fouth, it
would not follow, that other favages, who mi-
grated in the fame direction and on the fame
account, brought religion and philofophy, lan-
gut^e arid writing, art and fcience^ into the
fouthern latitudes.

We are told by Abu'’lgha'zi', that the pri-
mitive religion of human creatures, or the pure
adoration of One Creator, prevailed in Tartary
during the firft generations from Ya'JJt, but
was extind: before the birth of Oghu'z, who
reftored it in his dominions ; that, fome ages
after him, the -Mongals and the Turcs relapfed
into grofs idolatry ;■ but that Chengiz was a
Theift, and, in a converfation with the Muham-
medan Dodors, admitted their arguments for

ON THE TARTARS.

89

the being and attributes of the Deity to be un-
anfwerable, while he contefted the evidence of
their Prophet’s legation. From old Grecian
authorities we learn, that ‘the Majftigetce wor-
fliippcd the fun ; and the narrative of an em-
bafly from Justin to the Kbakan, or Emperor,
who then refided in a fine vale near the fource
of the Irtipj, mentions the Tartarian ceremony
of purifying the Roman Ambafladors by con-
ducting them between two fires: the Tartars
of that age are reprefented as adorers of xht four
elements, and believers in an invifiblc fpirit, to
whom they facrificed bulls and rams. Modern
travellers relate, that, in the fcftivals of fome
Tartarian tribes, they pour a few drops of a
confecrated liquor on the ftatues of their Godsj
after which an attendant fprinkles a little of what
remains three times toward the*fouth in honour
of fire, toward the weft and eaft in honour of
water and air, and as often toward the north in
honour of the earth, which contained the reliques
•of their deceafed anceftors : now all this may
be very true, ‘Without proving a national affinity
between the Tartars and Hindus ; for the Arabs
adored the planets and the powers of nature, the
Arabs had carved images, and made libations on
a black ftone, the Arabs turned in prayer to
different quarters of the heavens ; yet we know
writh certainty, that the Arabs are a diftinCf race

90 THE FIFTH DISCOURSE,

from the Tartars ; and we might as well infer,
that they were the fame people, becaufe they
had each their Nomades, or wanderers for paf-
turey and becaufe thd Turcmam, defcribed by
Ibnu Arabsh'ah and by him called Tatar's,,
are, like moft Arabian tribes, paftoral and war-
like, hofpitable and generous, wintering and
fummering on different plains, and rich in herds
and flocks, horfes and camels ; but this agreement
in manners proceeds from the fimilar nature of
their feveral deferts and their fimilar choice of a
free rambling life, without evincing a com-
munity of origin, which they could fcarce have
had without preferving fome remnant at leaft of
a common language.

Many Lamas, we are affured, or Priefts of
Buddha, have been found fettled in Siberia’,
but it can hardly be doubted, that the Lamas
had travelled thither from Tibet, whence it is
more than probable, that the religion of the
Bauddha's was imported into fouthern, or Chi-
nefc. Tartary', fince we know, that rolls of
Tibetian writing have been brought even from
the borders of the Cajpian. The complexion
of Buddha himfelf, which, according to the
Hindus, was between white and ruddy, would
perhaps have convinced M. Bailly, had he
known the Indian tradition, that the lall great
legiflator and God of the Eaft was a Tartar’,

ON -mE TARTARS.

but tht Chinee coafider him 9s a native of India,
the Brahmans iuiift, that he was bom in a foreft
near Gaya, and many reafons may lead us to
fufpe£t, that his religion was carried from the
weft and the fouth to thofe eaftern and northern
countries, in which it prevails. On the whole
we meet with few or no traces in Scythia of
Indian rites and fuperftitions, or of that poetical
mythology, with which the Sanfcrit poems are
decorated ; and we may allow the Tartars to
have adored the Sun with more reafon than any
fouthern people, without admitting them to have
been the foie original inventors of that univerfal
folly : we may even doubt the originality* of
their veneration for the four elements, which
forms a principal part of the ritual introduced
by Zer'atusht, a native of Rai in Perfia, born
in the reign of Gushtasp, whcjfe fon.PAsn'u-
TEN is believed by the Pdrji's to have refided
long in Tartary at a place called Cangidirs,
where a magnificent palace is faid to have been
built by the father of Cyrus, and where the
Perfian prince, who was a zealot in the new
faith, would naturally have difleminated its tenets
among the neighbouring Tartars.

Of any Philofophy, except natural Ethicks,
which the rudeft fociety requires and experience
teaches, we find no more veftiges in Jjiatick
Scythia than in ancient Arabia ; nor wpuld the

VOL. I. I

92

THE FIFTH DISCOURSE,

name of a Philofopher and a Scythian have been
ever conneded, if Anacharsis had not vifited
Athens and Lydia for that inftrudion, which
his birthplace could- not have afforded him : but
Anacharsis was the fon of a Grecian woman,
who had taught him her language, and he foon
learned to defpife his own. He was unquef-
tionably a man of a found underftanding and line
parts ; and, among the lively liiyings, which
gained him the reputation of a wit even in
Greece, it is related by Diogenes Laertius,
that, when an Athenian reproached him with
being a Scythian^ he anfwered : ‘ my country
‘ is, indeed, a difgrace to me, but thou art a
* difgrace to thy country.’ What his country
was, in regard to manners and civil duties, w'e
may learn from his fate in it ; for when, on his
return from A{y.hens^ he attempted to reform it
by introducing the wife laws of his friend Solon,
he was killed on a hunting party with an arrow
{hot by his own brother, a Scythian Chieftain.
Such was the philofophy of M. Bailly’s At-
lanteSy the firft and moft enlightened of nations !
We are affured, however, by the learned author
of the Dabijian, that the Tartars under Chen-
ciz and his defeendants were lovers of truth j
and would not even pre'ferve their lives by a
violation of it : De Guignes aferibes the fame
veracity, the parent of all virtues, to the Huns j

ON THE TARTARS.

99

and Strabo, who might only mean to lafh the
Greeks by praifing Barbarians, as Horace ex-
tolled the wandering Scythians merely to fatirize
his luxurious countrymen,* informs us, that the
nations of Scythia deferved the praife due to
wifdom, heroick friendfhip, and juftice ; and
this praife we may readily allow them on his
authority, without fuppofing them to have been
the preceptors of mankind.

As to the laws of Zamolxis, concerning
whom we know as little as of the Scythian Deu-
c ALTON, or of Abaris the Hyperborean^ and to
whofe ftory even Herodotus gave no credit, I
lament, for many reafons, that, if ever they exift-
ed, they have not been preferved : it is certain,
that a fyftem of laws, called Tdfdc, has been
celebrated in Tartary fince the time of ChengiZ,
who is faid to have republifljed. them in his
empire, a^ his inftitutions were afterwards adopt-
ed and enforced byTAiMu'R; but they feem
to have been a common, or traditionary, law,
and were probably not reduced into writing,
till Chengiz had conquered a nation, who
were able to write.

. III. Had the religious opinions and allegorical
fables of the Hindus been adually borrowed
from Scythia, travellers muft have difeovered In
that country fome ancient monuments of them,
fuch as pieces of grotefque fculpture, images of

94 THE FIFTH DISCOURSE,

the Gods and Avatars^ and inlcriptions on pillars
or in caverns, analogous to thofe, which remain
in every part of the weftern peninfula, or to
thofe, which many of us have feen in Bahar and
at Bandras ; but (except a few detached idols) the
only great monuments of Tartarian antiquity are
a line of ramparts on the weft and eaft of the CaJ^
plan, afcribed indeed by ignorant Mujelmans
to Tdjuj and Mdjuj, or Gog and Magog, that is
to the Scythians, but manifeftly raifed by a very
different nation in order to flop their predatory
inroads through the pafles of Caucafus. The
Cbincfi’ wall was built or finifhed, on a limilar
cohftrudlion and for a fimilar purpofe, by an
Emperor, who died only two hundred and ten
years before the beginning of our era ; and the
other mounds were very probably conftrudred
by the old Perjans, though, like many works
of unknown origin, they are given to Secan-
DER, not the Macedonian, but a more ancient
Hero fuppofed by fome to have been Jemshi'd.
It is related, that pyramids and tombs have been
found in Tdtdrijldn, or weftern Scythia, and
fome remnants of edifices in the lake Saifan;
that veftiges of a deferted city have been recent-
ly difcovered by the RiiJJians near the Cafpian

V

fea, and the Mountain of Eagles j and that
golden ornaments and utenfils, figures of elks
and other quadrupeds in metal, weapons of

ON THE TARTARS.

various kinds, and even Implements for mining,
but made of copper inftead of iron, have been
dug up in the country of ^he TJhudh ; whence
M. Bailly infers, with great reafon, the high
antiquity of that people : but the high antiquity
of the TjitarSy and their eftablifliraent in that
country near four thoufand years ago, no man
difputes i we are inquiring into their ancient
religion and philofophy, which neither orna-
ments of gold, nor tools of copper, will prove
to have had an affinity with the religious rites
and the fciences of India. The golden utenfils
might polfibly have been fabricated by the Tar~
tars themfelves ; but it is poflible too, that they
were carried from Rome or from China, whence
occafional embaffies were fent to the Kings of
Eighiir. Towards the end of the tenth century
the Chinefe Emperor difpatched an ambaflador
to a Prince, named Ersl a'n, which, in the Turk-
ijb of Conflantinople, fignifies a lion, who refided
near the Golden Mountain in the fame ftation,
perhaps, where the Romans had been received
in the middle of the fixth century ; the Chinefe
on his return home reported the Eighuris to be
a grave people, with fair complexions, diligent
workmen, and ingenious artificers not only in
gold, filver, and iron, but in jafper and fine
ftones ; and the Remans had before defcribed
their magnificent reception in a rich palace

96 THE FIFTH DISCOURSE,

adorned with Cbinefe manufactures : but tbefe
times were comparatively modern ; and, even
if we (hould admit, that the Eighiins, who are
faid to have been governed for a period of two
thoufand years by an Idecict, o' fovereign of
their owm race, were in feme very early age
a literary and poliilred nation, it vrould prove
nothing in favour of the Huns, Turcs, Mongols,
and other favages to the north of Pekin, who
feem in all ages, before MuHAMMiiD, to have
been equally ferocious and illiterate.

Without actual infpeCtion of the manuferipts,
that have been found near the Cufpian, it would
be impoffible to give a correCt opinion concern-
ing them ; but one of them, deferibed as written
on blue filky paper in letters of gold and filver
not unlike Hebrew, was probably a Tihetian
compofition of the fame kind with that, which
lay near the fource of the Irlijh, and of which
Cassiano I believe, made the firft accurate
verfion : another, if we may judge from the de-
feription of it, was probably modern TurkiJJj ;
and none of them could have been of great
antiquity.

IV. From ancient monuments, therefore, we
have no proof, that the Tartars were them-
felves well-inftruCted, much lefs that they in-
ftru^ed the world j nor have we any ftrongcr
jreafon to conclude from their general man-

ON THE TARTARS.

97

ncrs and charafler, that they had rqade an
early proficiency in arts and fcienccs : even of
poetry, the moft univerfal and moft natural of
the fine arts, we find no genuine fpecimens af-
cribed to them, except fome horrible warfongs
exprefled in Parfian by Ali' of Tezd, and
poflibly invented by him. After the conqueft
of Pcrfta by the Mongals, their princes, indeed,
encouraged learning, and even made aftrono-
inical obfervations at Samarkand ; as the Turcs
became polifhed by mixing with the Perfians
and Arabs, though their very nature, as one of
their own writers confefles, bad before been like
an incur alle diftemper, and their minds clouded
xvith ignorance : thus alfo the Mancheu monarchs
of China have been patrons of the learned and
ingenious, and the Emperor Tien-Long is, if
he be now, living, a fine Chinefe poet. In all
thefe inftances the Tartars have refemWed the
Romans, who, before they had fubdued Greece,
w'ere little better than tigers in war, and Fauns
or Sylvans in fcience and art.

Before I left Europe, I had infilled in con-
verfation, that the Tuzuc, tranllated by Major
Davy, was never w'ritten by Taimu'r himfelf,
ex lead not as Cjesar wrote his commentaries,
for one very plain reafon, that no Tartarian king
of his age could write at all ; and, in fupport of
my opinion, I had cited Ibnu Arabsha'h, who.

98

THE FIFTH DISCOURSE,

though juftly hofti'Ie to the favage, by whom
his native city, DamafcuSy had been ruined, yet
praifes his talents and the real greatnefs of his
mind, but adds : He was wholly illiterate ; he
neither read nor wrote any thing ; and he
“ knew nothing of Arahick ; though of Perfian,
“ Turkijb, and the Mogul dialedt, he knew as
“ much as was fuffieient for his purpofe, and no
“ more : he ufed with pleafure to hear hiftories
" read to him, and fo frequently heard the fame
“ book, that he was able by memory to correft
" an- inaccurate reader.” This paflage had no
efieA on the tranflator, whom great and learned
men in India had ajfuredy it feems, that the work
was authentick^ by which he meaned compofed
by the conqueror bimfelf: but the great in this
country might have been unlearned, or the learn-
ed might not have been great enough jto anfwer
any leading queftion in a manner that oppofed
the declared inclination of a Britijh inquirer;
and, in either cafe, fmce no witneffes are named,
fo general a reference to them will hardly be
thought conclufive evidence. On my part, I
will name a Mufelman, whom we all know, and
who has enough both of greatnefs and of learn-
ing to decide the queftion both impartially and
fatisfadoiily : the Nawwab Mozaffer Jang
informed me of his own accord, that no man of
fenfe in Hindujtdn believed the work to have

ON THE TARTARS.

99

been compofed by Taimu’r, but that his fa-
vourite, furnamed Hindu Sha’h, was known
to have written that book and others aicribed to
his patron, after many confidential difcourfeswith
the Emh~^ and, perhaps, nearly in the f'rince’s
words as well as in his perfon ; a ftory. which
Ali' of Tezd^ who attended the court of Tai-
MU R, and has given us a flowery panegyrick in-
fiead of a hiftory, renders highly probable, by
confirming the latter part of the Arabiar, account,
and by total filence as to the literary produdfions
of his mafter. It is true, that a very ingenious
but indigent native, whom Davy fupported,^ has
given me a written memorial on the fubjedt, in
which he mentions Taimu r as the author of
two works in Turkijh ; but the credit of his in-
formation is overfet by a ftrangc apocryphal
ftory of asking of Temetiy who Invaded, he lays,
the Emir’s dominions, and in whole library the
manufeript was afterwards found, and tranllated
by order of Ali shir, firrt miniller of Tai-
mu r’s grandfon ; and Major Davy himfelf, be-
fore he departed from Bengal, told me, that he
was greatly perplexed by finding in a very ac-
curate and old copy of the Tuzuc, which he dc-
figned to republifli with conliderable additions,
a particular account, written unquejlionably by
Taimu'r, of his own death. No evidence,
therefore, has been adduced to fhake my opinion.

lu:> THE FIFTH DISCOURSE,

that, the Moguls and Tartars, before their con-
(jueft of India and Perjia, were wholly unlet-
tered ; although it may be poflible, that, even
without art or fcience, they had, like the Huns,
both warriours and lawgivers in th^r own
country fome centuries before the birth of
Christ,

If learning was ever anciently cultivated in the
regions to the north of India, the feats of it, I have
reafon to fufped:, rnufl: have been Eigbiir, Cajb-
ghar, Kbata, Chin, Tanciit, and other countries
ciCbinefe Tartary, which lie between the thirty-
fifth„and forty-fifth degrees of northern latitude ;
but I fhall, in another difeourfe, produce my
reafons for fuppofmg, that thofe very countries
were peopled by a race allied to the Hindus, or
enlightened at leaft by their vicinity to India
and China ; yet in Tanciit, which by fofne is an-
nexed to Tibet, and even among its old inha-
bitants, the Seres, we have no certain accounts of
uncommon talents or great improvements; they
were famed, indeed, for the faithful difeharge of
moral duties, for a paciiick difpolition, and for
that longevity, which is often the rew^ard of
patient virtues and a calm temper ; but they are
faid to have been wholly indifferent, in former
ages, to the elegant arts and even to commerce ;
though Fadlu’llah had been informed, that,
near the dole of the tbirtcentb century, many

ON THE TARTARS. JOJ

branches of natural phllofophy were cultivated
in Cam-cheu, then the metropolis of Serica.

We may readily believe thofe, who afllirc us,
that Ibme tribes of wandering Tartars had real
fkill in applying herbs and minerals to the pur-
pofes of medicine, and pretended to (kill in ma-
gick ; but the general character of their nation
feems to have been this : they were profefled hunt-
ers or fifliers, dwelling on that account in forefts
or near great rivers, under huts or rude tents, or
in waggons drawn by their cattle from ftation to
ftation ; they were dextrous archers, excellent
horfemen, bold combatants, appearing often to
flee in diforder for the fake of renewing their
attack with advantage ; drinking the milk of
marcs, and eating the flefli of colts ; and thus
in many refpedfs refembling the old jtrabs^ but
in nothing more than in their Iftve of intoxicat-
ing liquors, and in nothing lefs than in a tafte
for poetry and the improvement of their lan-
guage.

Thus has it been proved, and, in my humble
opinion, beyond controverfy, that the far greater
part of y4jia has been peopled and immemorially
pofleffed by three confiderable nations, whom,
for want of better njmes, we may call Hindus^
Arabs, and 'Tartars j each of them divided and
fubdivided into an infinite number of branches,
and all of them fo dififerent in form and features,

102 THE FIFTH DISCOURSE, &c.

language', manners and religion, that, if they
fprang originally from a common root, they muft
have been feparated for ages : whether more
than three primitive frocks can be found, or, in
other words, whether the Chinefey Japanefe^ and
Perjians, are entirely difrind from them, or
formed by their intermixture, I fhall hereafter,
if your indulgence to me continue, diligently in-
quire. To what conclufions thefe inquiries will
lead, I cannot yet clearly difcern ; but, if they
lead to truth, we fhall not regret our journey
through this dark region of ancient hifrory, in
whjch, while we proceed ftep by ftep, and follow
every glimmering of certain light, that prefents
itfelf, we mufr beware of thofe falfe rays and
luminous vapours, which miflead AJiatick tra-
vellers by an appearance of water, but are found
on a near approach to be deferts of faqd.

THE SIXTH

DISCOURSE;

ON Tli^

PERSIANS,

DELIVERED 19 FEBRUARY, 1789,

.GENTLEMEN,

I TURN with delight from the vaft mountains
and barren deferts of Turdn, over which we tra-
velled laft year with no perfe<9; knowledge of our
courfe, and requeft you now to accompany me
on a literary journey through one -of "the moil
celebrated ’ and moil beautiful countries in the
world ; a country, the hiftory and languages of
which, both ancient and modern, I have long
attentively ftudied, and on which I may without
arrogance promife you more pofitive informa-
tion, than I could poflibly procure on a na-
tion fo difunited and fo unlettered as the Tar-
tars: I mean that, which Europeans improperly
call Perjia, the name of a fingle province being
applied to the whole Empire of Irdn, as it is cor-
redly denominated by the prefent natives of it,

m THE SIXTH DISCOURSE^

and by all the learned Mufelmam, who refide in
thefe Britijh territories. To give you an idea
of its largeft boundaries, agreeably to my former
mode of defcribing India, Arabia, and Tartary,
between which it lies, let us begin with the fource
of the great AJfyrian ftream, Euphrates, (as the
Greeks, according to their cuftom, were pleafed
to mifcall the Forat) and thence defcend to its
mouth in the Green Sea, or Perfian Gulf, in-
cluding in our line fome confiderable diftridts
and towns on both hdes the river ; then coafting
Perjia, properly fo named, and other Iranian
provinces, we come to the delta of the Sindhu
or 'Indus ‘ whence afeending to the mountains
of Cajbghar, we difeover its fountains and thofe
of the yaihiin, down which we are conducted
to the Cafpian, which formerly perhaps it en-
tered, though it; lofe itfelf now in the fands and
lakes of Khwdrezm : we next are led from the
fea of Khozar, by the banks of the Cur, or Cy-
tus, and along the Caucafean ridges, to the fliore
of the Euxine, and thence, by the feveral Grecian
feas, to the point, whence we took our departure,
at no confiderable diftance from the Mediterra^
nean. We cannot but include the lower AJIa
within this outline, becaufe it was unqueftionably
a part of the Perfian, if not of the old AJfyrian,
Empire; for we know, that it was under the
dominion of Caikhosrau; and Diodorus, wc

ON THE PERSIANS.

105

find, aflferts, that the kingdom of Troas was de-
pendent on AJfyria, fince Priam implored and
obtained fuccours from his EmperorTEUTAMES,
whofe name approaches nearer to Tahmu'ras,
than to that of any other AJfyrian monarch.
Thus may we look on h'on as the nobleft IJla7idf
(for fo the Greeks and the Arabs would have
called it), or at leaft as the nobleft pcnmfula^ on.
this habitable globe; and if M. Bailey had
fixed on it as the Atlantis of Plato, he might
have fiipported his opinion with far ftronger
arguments than any, that he has adduced in
favour of New Zembla : if the account, indeed,
of the Atlantes be not purely an Egyptian^ or an
Utopian^ fable, I fhould be more inclined to
place them in Iran than in any region, with
which I am acquainted.

It may feem ftrange, that the ancient hiftory
of fo diftlnguifhed an Empire fhould be yet fo
imperfedlly known ; but very fatisfa^lory reafons
may be affigned for our ignorance of it: the
principal of them arc the fuperficial knowledge
of the Greeks and JewSy and the lofs of Pcrfian
archives or hiftorical compofitions. That the
Grecian writers, before Xenophon, had no sic-
quaintance with Perjia, and that all their ac-
counts of it are wholly fabulous, is a paradox too
extravagant to be ferioufly maintained j but their
connexion with it in war or peace had, indeed.

>06

THE SIXTH DIStOURSE,

been generally conSned to bordering kingdoms
under feudatory princes; and the firft Perjiatt
Emperor, whofe life and charadler they feem to
have known with tolerable accuracy, was the
great Cyrus, whom I call, without fear of con-
tradidtion, Cajkhosrau j for I ftiall then only
doubt that the Khosrau of Firdausi' was the
Cyrus of the firft Greek hiftorian, and the Hero
of the oldcft political and moral romance, when
I doubt that Louis Quatorze and Lewis the
Fourteenth were one and the fame French King :
it is utterly incredible, that two different princes
of Perfia fhould each have been born in a foreign
and hoftile territory ; Ihould each have been
doomed to death in his infancy by his maternal
grandfather in confequence of portentous dreams,
real or invented ; fhould each have been faved
by the r^morfe< of his deftined murderer, and
fhould each, after a fimilar educatio'n among
herdfmen, as the fon of a herdfman, have found
means to revifit his paternal kingdom, and
having delivered it, after a long and triumphant
war, from the tyrant, who had invaded it, fhould
have reftored it to the fummit of power and
magnificence. Whether fo romantic k. a ftory,
which is the fubjedl of an Epick Poem, as ma-
jcftick and entire as the lliad^ be hiftorically
true, we may feel perhaps an inclination to
doubt; but it cannot with reafon be denied.

ON THE PERSIANS.

107

that the outline of it related to a fingle Hero,
whom the AJiatickSf converfing with the father
of European hiftory, defcribed according to their
popular traditions by his true name, which the
Greek alphabet could not exprefs : nor will a dif-
ference of names affedt the queftion ; fmce the
Greeks had little regard for truth, which they
facrijiced willingly to the Graces of their lan-
guage, and the nicety of their ears ; and, if they
could render foreign words melodious, they were
never felicitous to make them exa£t ; hence they
probably formed CAMBYsivsfromCA'MBAKUSH,
or Granting dejires, a title rather than a name,
and Xerxes from Shi'ru'yi, a Prince and war-
riour in the Shdhndmah, or from Shi'rsha'h,
which might alfo have been a title ; for the AJia-
tick Princes have conftantly affumed new titles
or epithets at different periods of their' lives, or
on different occafions ; a cuftom, which we have
feen prevalent in our own times both in Iran and
Hindujldnf and which has been a fource of great
confufion even in the fcriptural accounts of Ba-
byhnian occurrences : both Greeks and Jeivs
have in fa<3: accommodated Perjian names tp
their own articulation ; and both feem to have
difregarded the native literature of Irduy without
which they could at moft attain a general and
imperfed knowledge of the country. As to the
Perjians themfelves, who were contemporary

VOL. I, K

no THE SIXTH DISCOURSE,

can hardly fuppofc the firft Indian monarchs to
have reigned lef? than three thoufand years ago,
yet Verjia-y the moft delightfulj the moft corn-
pad, the moft defirable country of them all,
fliould have lemained for fo many ages unfettled
and difunited. A fortunate difeovery, for which
I was firft indebted to Mir Mu hammed Hu-
sain, one of the lUoft intelligent Mufehnans in
IndlUy has at once diflipated the cloud, and caft
a gleam of light on the primeval hiftory of Iran
and of the human race, of which I had long de-
fpaired, and which could hardly have dawned
from any other quarter.

The rare and intcrefting trad on twelve dif-
ferent religionSy entitled the Dabifan, and com-
pofed by a Mohammedan traveller, a native of
Cajhrniry named Mohs an, but diftinguilhed by
the affumed lurname of Fa'ni', or Perijbable,
begins with a wonderfully curious chapter on
the religion of Hu'shang, which was long an-
terior to that of ZerA'Tush T, but had continued
to be fecretly profefled by many learned Perfatis
even to the author’s time ; and feveral of the
moft eminent of them, diflenting in many points
■from the Gabrs, and perfecuted by the rulmg
.powers of their country, had retired to India i
where they compiled a number of books, now*
extremely fcarce, which Mohs an had perufed,
and with the writers of which, or with many of

ON THE PERSIANS.

Ill

them, he had contrafted an intimate frlendfhip :
from them he learned, that a powerful monarchy
liad been eftablilhed for ages in Iran before the
acceflion of Cayu mers, that it was called the
Mahdbddian dynafty, for a reafon which will
fooH be mentioned, and that many princes, of
whom feven or eight only are named in the Da-^
bijldn, and among them Mahbul, or Maha'
Beli, had raifed their empire to the zenith of
iiuman glory. If we can rely on this evidence,
which to me appears unexceptiom.blc, the Ira-
nian monarchy mufl: have been the oldeft in the
world i but it will lemain dubious, to which of
the three ftocks, Ilhidu^ Aral'um, or Tartar, the
firft Kings of Irdti belonged, or whether they
fprang from z fourth race diftinifi from any of
the others ; and thefe are queftions, which we
ihall be able, I imagine, to anfwer prccifely,
when we have carefully inquired into the lan-
guages and letters, religion and phihfopby, and
incid entally into the arts and fciences, of the an-
cient Verjians.

I. In the new and important remarks, which
I am going to offer, on the ancient languages and
‘charaSiers of Iran, I am fenfible, that you mull
give me credit for many affertions, ■Which on this
occafion it is impoffible to prove ; fpr I fhould
ill deferve your indulgent attention, if I were to
abufe it by repeating a dry lift of detached words,

112 THE SIXTH BISCOITRSE,

and prefenting you with a vocabulaty iirftead' df
a differtation ; but, fince I have no fyftem tO
maintain, and have, not fuiFered imagination to
delude my judgement; fince I have habituated
myfelf to form opinions of men and things from
evidence, which is the only folid bafis of civil,
as experiment is of natural, knowledge ; and
fince I have maturely confidered the qucftions
which I mean to difcufs ; you will not, I am
perfuaded, fufpe(Sl my teftimony, or think that
I go too far, when I aflure you, that I will alTert
nothing pofitively, which I am not able fatis-
factorily to demonftrate. When Muhammed
was born, and Anu'shi'rava'n, whom he calls
the JuJi King, fat on the throne of Perjia, two
languages appear to have been generally pre-
valent in the great empire of Iran ; that of the
Court, thence named Deri, which .was only a
refined and elegant dialed^ of the Pdrsi, fo called
from tfie province, of which Shiraz is now the
capital, and that of the learned, in which moll
books were compofed, and which had the name
of Pablavi, either from the heroes, who fpoke it
in former times, or from Pahlu, a trafl of land,
which included, we are told, fome confiderable
pities of Irak: the ruder* dialects of both were,
and, I believe, Hill are, fpoken by the rufticks in
fisveral provinces; and in many of them, as
Herat, Zdbul, Sijidn and others, difrindt idioms

ON THE PERSIANS.

113

were vernacular, as it happens in every kingdom
of great extent. Befides the Piirsi and Pahlavi^
a very ancient and abftrufe tongue was known
to theprieftsand philolbphers,called the language
of the Zendy becaufe a book on religious and
moral duties, which they held facred, and which
bore that name, had been written in it ; while
the Pdzend, or comment on that work, was
compofed in Pahlax’i, as a more popular idiom ;
but a learned follower of Zera'tusht, named
B AMMAN, who lately died at Calcuita, where
he had lived with me as a Perjian reader about
three years, alfured me, that the Utters of his
prophet’s book were properly called Zend, and
the language, Avejid, as the words of the Veda's
are Sanferit, and the charadiers, Ndgar 'r ; or as
the old Saga's and poems of Ifeland w'ere ex-
prelTed in liiinick letters: let us however, in
compliance with cuftom, give the name of Zend
to the "facred language of Perjia, until we can
find, as we fliall very foon, a fitter appellation
for it. The Zend and the old Pablaxu are almoft
extinct in Iran ; for among fix or feven thoufand
Gubrs, who relide chiefly at Tezd, and in
Cirmdn, there are very few, who can read Pah-
laviy and fcarce any, who even boaft of knowing
the Zend ; while the Pars), which remains
almoft pure in the Sbdhndmah, has now become
by the intermixture of numbcrlefs Arahkk words,

114

THE SIXTH DISCOURSE,

and many imperceptible changes, a new language
ejcquifitely poliflied by a feries of fine writers in
profe and vcrfe, and analogous to the different
idioms gradually formed in Europe after the fub-'
verfion of the Roman empire : but with modern
Perjian we have no concern in our prefent in-
quiry, which I confine to the ages, that preceded
the Mohammedan conqueft. Having twice read
the works of Firdausi' with great attention,
fince I applied myfelf to the ftudy of old Indian
literature, I can affure you with confidence, that
hundreds of Pdrs'i nouns are pure Sanferit, with
no other change than fuch as may be obferved
in'the numerous hbajha's, or vernacular dialefts,
of India j that very many Perfian imperatives
are the roots of Sanferit verbs ; and that even
the moods and tenfes of the Perfian verb fub-
ftantive, which .'s the model of all the reft, are
deducible from the Sanferit by an eafy and clear
analogy : we may hence conclude, that the Pdrs't
was derived, like the various Indian dialects,
from the language of the Brahman^', and I muft
add, that in the pure Perfan I find no trace of
auy Arabian tongue, except what proceeded
from the known intercourfe between the Per-,
fans and Arabs, efpecially in the time of Bah-
ra'm, who was educated in Arabia, and whofe
4rabick verfes are ftill extant, together with his
heroick line in Deri, which many fuppofe to b?

THE PERSIANS. ti&

the firft attempt at Perjian verfification in Ara*
bian metre : but, without having recourfe to
other arguments, the compojition of voords^ in
which the genius of the Perjian delights, and
which that of the Arabick abhors, is a decifive
proof, that the Pdrs'i fprang from an Indian, and
not from an Arabian, ftock. Confidering lan-
guages as mere inftruments of knowledge, and
having flrong reafons to doubt the exiftence of
genuine books in Zend or Pahlavi (efpecially
fince the well-informed author of the Dabijidn
affirms the wortc of Zera tusht to have been
loft, and its place fupplied hy a recent com-
pilation) 1 had no inducement, though I had an
opportunity, to learn what remains of thofe an-
cient languages ; but I often coiiverfed on them
with my friend Bahman, and both of us were
convinced after full confideratidn, that the Zend
bore a ftrong refemblance to Sanfcrit, and the
Pahlavi to Arabick. He had at my requeft
tranllated into Pahlavi the fine infcription, ex-
hibited in the Gulijldn, on the diadem of Cy-
rus ; and I had the patience to read the lift of
words from the Pdzend in the appendix to the
Farhangi Jehdngiri : this examination gave me
perfect convi(ftion, that the Pahlavi was a dialed
of the Chaldaick j and of this curious fadl I will
exhibit a fhort proof. By the nature of the
Chaldean tongue moft words ended in the firft

THE SIXTH DISCOURSE,

tw

tong vowel like Jbemia, heaven ; and that very
word, unaltered in a fingle letter, wc find in the
Pazend, together with lailid, night, meyd, water,
nird, fire, ntatra, rain, and a multitude of others,
all Arabick or Hebrew with a Chaldean ter-
mination: fo zamar, by a beaixtiful metaphor
from pruning trees^ means in Hebrew to compoje
verfeSy and thence, by an eafy tranlition, to fing
them ; and in Pahlavt we fee the verb zam-
runiteny to jing, with its forms zanrmemi, I
jingy and zamrunidy he fang ; the verbal termi-
nations of the Verfian being added to the Chal-
daifk root. Now all thofe words are integral parts
of the language, not adventitious to it like the
Arabick nouns and verbals engrafted on modern
Perfian ; and this diftindion convinces me, that
the dialed of the Gabrs, which they pretend to
be that of Zera'Vusht, and of which Bahman
gave me a variety of written fpecimens, is a late
invention of their priefts, or fubfequent at leaft
to the Mufelman invalion ; for, although it may
be poffible, that a few of their facred books were
preferved, as he ufed to aflert, in fheets of lead
or copper at the bottom of wells near Tezd, yet
as the conquerors had not only a fpiritual, but a
political, intereft in pcrfecutjng a warlike, robuft,
and indignant race of irreconcilable conquered
fubjeds, a long time rauft have elapled, before
the hidden feriptures could have been fafely

ON THE PEESfANS.

117

brought to light, ajwf few, who could perfeftly
imderftand them, muft {hen have remained ; but,
as they continued to profefs among themfelves
the religion of their forefathers, it became ex-
pedient for the Mubeds to fupply the loft or mu-»
rilated works of their legiflator by new compo-
fitions, partly from their imperfe£t recolledion,
and partly from fuch moral and religious know-
ledge, as they gleaned, moft probably, among
the Chrijiiatis, with whom they had an inter-
courfe. One rule we may fairly eftablifh in de-
ciding the queftion, whether the books 6f the
modern Gabrs were anterior to the invafion oF"
the Arabs: when an Arabick noun occurs in
them changed only by the fpirit of the Chaldean
idiom, as iverta^ for iverd, a rofe, daba, for
(Ibahab, gold, or deman^ for zeman, time, we may
allow it, to have been ancient Pahhnn ; but,
when we meet with verbal nouns or infinitives,
evidently formed by the rules of Arabian gram-
mar, we may be fure, that the phrafes, in which
they occur, are comparatively modern ; and not
a fingle paflage, which Bauman produced from
the books of his religion, would abide this
teft.

We come now to the language of the Zend\
and here I mull impart a difeovery, which I
lately made, and from which we may draw the
moft interefting confequences. M. Anquetil,

ns

THE SiriTI DISCOURSE,

who had the merit of undertaking a voyage to
India^ in his earlieft youth, with no other view
than to recover the writings of ZerA'TUSHT,
and who would have acquired a brilliant re-
putation in France, if he had not fullied it by
his immoderate vanity and virulence of temper,
W'hich alienated the good will even of his own
countrymen, has exhibited in his work, entitled
Zenddvejld, two vocabularies in Zend and Pah-
lav't, which he had found in an approved col-
lection of Rawdydt, or Traditional Pieces, in
modern Perfian : of his Pahlavi no more needs
be faid, than that it ftrongly confirms my opi-
nion concerning the Cbaldaick origin of that
language ; but, when I perufed the Zend glof-
fary, I was inexpreflibly furprized to find, that
fix or feven words in ten were pure Sanferit,
and even fomc oPtheir inflexions formed by the
rules of the Vydearan ; as yujhmdcam, the ge-
nitive plural oiyuJJjmad, Now M. Anquetil
mofl: certainly, and the Perjian compiler moft
probably, had no knowledge of Sanferit’, and
could not, therefore, have invented a lift of
Sanferit words: it is, therefore, an authentick
lift of Zend w^ords, wdiich had been preferved in
books or by tradition ; and V follow^s, that the
language of the Zend was at leaft a dialed: of
the Sanferit, approaching perhaps as nearly to
it as the Prdcrit, or other popular idioms, which

ON THE PERSIANS.

1 19

we know to have been fpoken in India, two
thoufand years ago. From all thefe fadts it is
a neceflary confequcnce, that the oldeft difcover-
able languages of Perjid were Cbaldaick and
Sanfcrit-, and that, w'hen they had ccafed to
be vernacular, the Pablavi and Zerid were de-
duced from them refpetStively, and the Pdrs'i
cither from the Zend., or immediately from the
dialedf of the Brdbmans ; but all had perhaps a
mixture of Tartarian ; for the beft lexicographers
alfert, that numberlefs words in ancient Perfian
are taken from the language of the Cimmerians,
or the Tartars of Kipebdk ; fo that the three fa=,-
milies, whofe lineage we have examined in
former difeourfes, had left vifible traces of them-
felves in Iran, long before the Tartars and Arabs
had rufhed from their deferts, and returned to
that very country, from wdiick in all' probability
they originally proceeded, and wdiich the Hindus
had abandoned in an earlier age, with pofitivc
commands from their legiflators to revifit it no
more. I clofe this head with obferving, that no
fuppofition of a mere political or commercial in-
tercourfe between the different nations will ac-
■ count for the Sanjerit and Cbaldaick words,
which we find in the old Perjiflii tongues ; be-
caufe they are, in the firft place, too numerous
to have been introduced by fuch means, and,
fecondly, are not the names of exotick animals.

i?d THE SIXTH DISCOURSE,

coramoditlcs, or art«, but thafe of material de-
ments, parts of the body, natural objedbs and
relations, affections of the mind, and other ideas
common to the whole' race of man.

If a nation of Hindus, k may be urged, ever
pofTeffed and governed the country of Iran, we
fhould find on the very ancient ruins of the
temple or palace, now called the throne ^ Jem-
sui'D., fome infcriptions in Hhandgari, or at
leaft in tire characters on the ftones M Elephanta,
where the fculpture is unqueftionably Indian, or
in thofe on the Stiiff" of I'i'rv'z Sha'h, wluch
in the heart of India ; and fuch infcriptions
wc probably fliould have found, if that edifice
had not been cieCted after the migration of the
BTabmaas from Iran, and the violent fchifm in
the Berjian religion, of which we fliall prefently
fpeak ; for; although the popular name of the
building at Iflakhr, or Perfepolis, be no certain
proof that it was raifed in the time of Jemsiii d,
yet fuch a faCt might eafily have been preferved
by tradition, and we (hall foon have abundant
evidence, that the temple was pofteriour to the
reign of the Hindu monarchs : the cypreffes in-
deed, which are reprefented with the figures in
procelfion, migjit induce a reader of the Shdb^
ndmah to believe, that the Iculptures related to
the new faith introduced by Zera'tusht ; but,
4is .n .cypirers U a beautiful ornament, and as

ON THE PERSt ANS.

121

many' -of the figures -appear inconfiftent with
the reformed adoration of fire, we muft have
recourfe to flronger proofs, that the Takhti
Jemshi'd was erefted after Cayu'mers. The
building has lately been viiited, and the cha-
radlers on it examined, by Mr. Francklin ;
from whom we learn, that Niebuhr has de-
lineated them with great accuracy : but without
fuch teftimony I flrould have fufpe£lt'd the cor-
redfnefs of the delineation ; bccaufe the Dani/h
traveller has exhibited two inferiptions in mo-
dern Perjian^ and one of them from the fame
place, which -cannot have been exaiSly tran^,
feribed: they are very elegant verfes of Ni-
zami' and Sadi' on the in/lability of human
greatnejsi but fo ill engraved or fo ill copied,
that, if Thad not had them nearly by heart, I
(hould not have been able to ^'ead them ; and
M. Rousseau of Isfahan^ who tranflated them
with Ih-ameful inaccuracy, muft have been de-
ceived by the badnefs of the copy ; or he never
would have created a new king Wakam, by
forming one word of Jem and the particle pre-
fixed to it. Afliiming, however, that we may
rcafon as conclufively on the characters publiihed
by Niebuhe, as we might on the monuments
themlelves, -were they now before us, we may
begin with oliferving, as CHARDtN had pbferved
on the very fpot, that they bear no refetnblance

Itt THE SIXTH DISC6URSE,

ifrhatever to the letters ufed by the Gahrs In
their copies of the VendidM: this I once urged,
in an amicable debate with BAHMAN,a8 a proof,
that the Zend letters Were a modern invention j
but he feemed to hear me without furprize, and
infilled, that the letters, to which I alluded, and
which he had often feen> were monumental
charafters never ufed in books, and intended
either to conceal fome religious myfteries from
the vulgar, or to difplay the art of the fculptor,
like the embellilhed Cujick and Nagar't on fe-
veral Arabian and India monuments. He won-
-,dered, that any man could ferioufly doubt the
antiquity of the Pahlavi letters ; and in truth
the infeription behind the horfe of Rujiam,
which Niebuhr has alfo given us, is apparently
Pahlavi., and might with fome pains be decy-
phered : that charadler was extremely rude, and
feems to have been written, like the Homan and
the Arabick, in a variety of hands j for I re-
member to have examined a rare colledlion of
old Verfian coins in the Mufeum of the great
Anatomift, William Hunter, and, though I
believed the legends to be Pahlavi, and had no
doubt, that they were coins of Parthian kings,
yet I could qot read the inferiptions without
walling more time, than I liad then at command,
in^ comparing the letters and afeertaining the
proportions, in which they feverally occurred.

ON THE PERSIANS.

123

The grofs Pablavi was improved by Zeha-
TUSHT or his difciples into an elegant and per-
fpicuous charader, in which the Zenddvejid was
copied ; and both were written from the right
hand to the left like other Chaldaick alphabets ;
for they are manifeftly both of Chaldean origin;
but the Zend has the fingular advantage of ex-
prefling all the long and fhort vowels, by diC-
tind marks, in the body of each word, and all
the words are diftinguifhed by full points be-
tween them ; fo that, if modem Ferjiim were
unmixed with Arabick, it might be written, in
Zend with the greateft convenience, as any ono
may perceive by copying in that character a few
pages of the Sbdhnmnah. As to the unknown
inferiptions in the palace of Jemshi'd, it may
reafonably be doubted, whether they contain a
fyftem of letters, which any natiort ever adopted :
in Jive of them the letters, which are feparated
by points, may be reduced to forty, at leaft I
can diftinguifh no more eflentially different; and
they all feem to be regular variations and com-
pofitions of a ftraight line and an angular figure
like the head of a javelin, or a leaf (to ufe the
language of botanifts) hearted and lanced. Many
of the Runick letters appear to have been formed
of fimilar elements j and it has been oblerved,
that the writing at FerfepoUs bears a flrong re-
femblance to that, which the Irijh call Ogham :

VOL. I. L

124

THE SIXTH DISCOURSE,

the word Jgajn in Sanfcrit means mvfltrious
knowledge i but I dare not affirm, that the two
words had a common origin, and only mean to
fuggeft, that, if the characters in queftion be
really alphabetical, they were probably fecret
and faccrdotal, or a mere cypher, perhaps, of
which the priefts only had the key. They
might, I imagine, be decyphered, if the language
were certainly known ; but, in all the other in-
feriptions of the fame fort, the characters arc too
complex, and the variations of them too nu-
merous, to admit an opinion, that they could be
-fymbols of articulate founds ; for even the JVif-
gari fyllem, which has more diftinCt letters than
any known alphabet, conlifts only of forty-nine
fimple characters, two of which arc mere fub-
ftitutions, and four of little ufc in Sanferit or in
any other language ; while the more complicated
figures, exhibited by Niebuhr, muft be as nu-
merous at leafl as the Cbinefe. keys, which are
the figns of ideas only, and fomc of which re-
femblc the old Perfian letters at IJlakhr: the
Danijl} traveller was convinced from'" his own
obfervation, that they were written from the
left hand, like all the characters ufed by Hifidu
nations ; but I muft leave this dark fubjeCt,
which I cannot illuminate, with a remark for-
merly made by myfelf, that the fquare Cbaldaick
letters, a few of which are found on the Perjian

ON THE PERSIANS.

125

ruins, appear to have been originally the fame
tv'ith the Devandgar'i^ before the latter were en-
clofed, as we now fee them^ in angular frames.

II. The primeval religion of Iran^ if we rely
on the authorities adduced by Mohsani Fa'ni',
was that, which Newton calls the oldeft (and
it may juflly be called the nobleft) of all reli-
gions ; “ a firm belief, that One Supreme God
“ made the world by his power, and continually
“ governed it by his providence ; a pious fear,
“ love, and adoration of Him ; a due reverence
for parents and aged perfons ; a fraternal ajfec-
“ tion for the whole human fpecies, and a
“ paflionate tendernefs even for the brute crea-
“ tion.” A fyftem of devotion fo pure and fub-
lime could hardly among mortals be of long
duration ; and we learn from the Dabijlm, that
the popular worfhip of the IrdrUans under Hu -
SHANG was purely Sabian; a word, of which I
cannot olFer any certain etymology, but which
has been deduced by grammarians from Sadc), a
ho/?, and, particularly the hq/t of heaven, or the
celejlial bodies, in the adoration of which the
Sabian ritual is believed to have confifted : there
is a defeription, in the learned work juft men-
tioned, of the feveral Perfan temples dedicated
to the Sun and Planets, of the images adored In
them, and of the magnificent proceflions to them

on preferibed feftivals, one of which is probably

L 2

126 THE SLYEH DISCOURSE,

reprefented by fculpture in the ruined city of
Jemshi’d ; but the planetary worfliip in Perjia
feems only a part of a far more complicated re-
ligion, which we now find in thefe Indian pro-
vinces ; for Mohs AN affures us, that, in the opi-
nion of the bell informed Perfians, who profelTcd
the faith of Hu'shang, diftinguilhed from that
of Zera'tusht, the firft monarch of Iran and
of the whole earth was Mah a'ba'd, a word ap-
parently Sanfcrit, who divided the people into
four orders, the religious^ the military, the com-
mereial, and the Jervile, to which he afligned
*ii£mcs unqueftionably the fame in their origin
with thofe now applied to the four primary clafles
of the Hindus. They added, that He received
from the creator, and promulgated among men,
a /acred book in a heavenly language, to whicli
the Mujelman alithor gives the .drabick title of
dejdtir, or regulations, but the original name of
which he has not mentioned j and ih^X. fourteen
Maha'ba'ds had appeared or would appear in
human fhapes for the government of, this world :
now when we know, that the Hindus believe in
fourteen Menu’s, or celeftial perfonages with
fimilar functions, the frji of whom left a book
of regulations^ or divine ordinances, which they
hold equal to the Veda, and the language of
which they believe to be that of the Gods, we
can hardly doubt, that the firft corruption of the

ON THE PERSIANS.

127

pureft and oldeft religion was the fyftem of /«-
dim Theology, invented by the Brahmans and
prevalent in thefe territories, where the book of
Maha BAD or Menu is at this hour the ftand-
ard of all religious and moral duties. The ac-
ceffion of Cayu MiiRS to the throne of Perfia^
in the eighth or ninth century before Christ,
feems to have been accompanied by a conlider-
able revolution both in government and religion :
he was mod: probably of a different race from
the Mahabddians, who preceded him, and began
perhaps the new fyftem of national faith, which
Hu'shang, whofe name it bears, completed ;
but the reformation was partial ; for, while they
rejedted the complex polytheifm of their pre-
deceflbrs, they retained the laws of Maha ba'd,
with a fuperftitious veneration for the fun, the
planets, and fire ; thus refenabling the Hindu
fedts, called Saura’s and Sdgjiica's, the fecond
of which is very numerous at Banares, where
many agnihotra's are continually blazing, and
where the Sdgnica\s, when they enter on their
facerdotal office, kindle, with two pieces of the
hard wood Serni, a fire which they keep lighted
tlirough their lives for their nuptial ceremony,
the performance of folemn facri|ices, the obfe-
quies of departed anceftors, and their own funeral
pile. This remarkable rite was continued by
Zera'tusht ; who reformed the old religion by

128 THE SIXTH DISCOURSE,

the addition of genii, or angels, prefiding ovei?
months and days, of new ceremonies in the ve-
neration fhown to fire, of a new work, which he
pretended to have received from heaven, and,
above all, by eftablifhing the adual adoration of
One Supreme Being : he was born, according to
Mohsan, in the difirid of Rai ; and it was He,
not, as Ammianus aflfcrts, his.protedor Gush-
TASB, who travelled into India, that he might
receive information from the Brahmans in theo-
logy and ethicks. It is barely poflible, that Py-
THA.GORAS knew him in the capital of Irah\
the Grecian fage muft then have been far
advanced in years, and we have no certain evi-
dence of an intercourfe between the two phi-
lofophers. The reformed religion of Perjia
continued in force, till that country was fubdued
by the MufelniAns\ and, without ftudying the
Zend, we have ample information concerning it
in the modern Perjian writings of feveral, who
profefled it. Bauman always named Zera-
TUSliT, with reverence ; but he was in truth a
pure Theift, and ftrongly difclaimed any adora-
tion of the Jire or other elements : he denied,
that the dodrine of two coeval principles, fu-
premely good -and fupremely bad, formed any
part of his faith ; and he often repeated with
emphafis the verfes of Firdausi on the prof-
tration of Cyrus and his paternal grandfather

ON THE PERSIANS.

129

before the blazing altar : “ Think not, that they
“ were adorers of fire ; for that element was
“ only an exalted object, on the luftre of which
“ they fixed their eyes ; they humbled them-
“ felves a whole week before God ; and, if thy
“ underftanding be ever fo little exerted, thou
“ mull acknowledge thy dependence on the
“ being fupremely pure.” In a ftory of Sadi,
near the clofe of his beautiful Bujldn, concern-
ing the idol of So'mana't’h, or Mah a'de'va,
he confounds the religion of the Hindus with
that of the Gains, calling the Brahmans not only
Moghs, (which might be juftified by a palTage in
the Mrfnavi ) but even readers of the Zend and
Pdzend: now, whether this confulion proceeded
from real or pretended ignorance, I cannot de-
cide, but am as firmly convinced, that the doc-
trines of the Ze?id were diftinft froift thofe of
the VMa, as I am that the religion of the Brdh-
7nans, with whom we converfe every day, pre-
vailed in Ferfia before the acceffion of Cayu-
MERs, whom the PdrsVs, from refpe£t to his
memory, confider as the firft of men, although
they believe in an univerfal deluge before his
reign.

With the religion of the old. Perfians their
pbilofophy (or as mueh as we know of it) was
intimately connected; for they were afliduous
obfervers of the luminaries, which they adored.

130

THE SIXTH DISCXJURSE,

and eftablifhed, according to Mohs AN, who
confirms in fome degree the fragments of Be-
Rosus, a number of artificial cycles with diftindt
names, which feem to indicate a knowledge of
the period, in which the equinoxes appear to re-
volve : they are faid alfo to have known the
moft wonderful powers of nature, and thence to
have acquired the fame of magicians and en-
chanters ; but I will only detain you with a few
remarks on that metaphyfical theology, which
has been profeffed immemorially by a numerous
fedt of Verjians and Hindus^ was carried in part
^to Greece, and prevails even now among the
learned Mufelmans, who fometimes avow it with-
out referve. The modern philofophers of this
perfuafion are called Suji*s, either from the
Greek word for a fage, or from the woollen
mantle, which they ufed to wear in fome pro-
vinces of Perjia : their fundamental tenets are,
that nothing exifts abfolutely but God: that the
human foul is an emanation from his eifence,
and, though divided for a time from its heavenly
fource, will be finally re-united with it ; that the
higheft poffible happinefs will arife from its re-
union, and that the chief good of mankind, in
this tranfitory.world* confifts in as perfedi an
union with the Eternal Spirit as the incumbrances
of a mortal frame will allow ; that, for this pur-
pofe^ they ihould break all connexion (or tadlluk.

ON THE PERSIANS.

131

as they call it), with extrinfick objedls, and pafs
through life without attachments, as a fwimmer
in the ocean ftrikes freely without the impe-
diment of clothes ; that they fliould be ftraight
and free as the cyprefs, whofe fruit is hardly
perceptible, and not fink under a load, like fimit-
trees attached to a trellis j that, if mere earthly
charms have power to influence the foul, the
idea of celeftial beauty muft overwhelm it in
extatick delight ; that, for want of apt words to
exprefs the divine perfections and the ardour of
devotion, we muft borrow fuch exprefliops as
approach the neareft to our ideas, and fpeak of
Beauty and Love in a tranfcendent and myftical
fenfe ; that, like a reed torn from its native bank,
like xvax feparated from its delicious honey, the
foul of man bewails its difunion with melancholy
mujick, and ftieds burning tear#, like the lighted
taper, waiting paffionately for the moment of its
extinction, as a difengagemcnt from earthly
trammels, and the means of returning to its Only
Beloved. Such in part (for I omit the mi-
nuter and more fubtil metaphyfieks of the Si/Ji’s,
which are mentioned in the Dabijldn) is the
wild and enthufiaftick religion of the modem
Terfian poets, efpecially of the*fwreet Ha fiz
and the great Maulav't: fuch is the fyftem of
the Veddnti philofophers and beft lyrick poets of
India ; and, as it was a fyftem of the higheft an^

1

THE SIXTH DISCOURSE,

tiquity in both nations, it may be added to the
many other proofs of an immemorial affinity
between them.

III. On the ancl6nt monmnenls of Perfian
fculpture and architcdlure we have already made
fucli obferyations, as were fufficient for our pur-
pofe ; nor will you be furprized at the diverfity
between the figures at Elephanta^ which are ma-
nifeftly Hindu, and thofe at Perfepolis, which
are merely Sabian, if you concur with me in
believing, that the Takhli yemjhid was erected
after the time of Cayu'mers, when the Brdb-,
Ijians had migrated from Iran, and when their
intricate mythology had been fuperfeded by the
fimpler adoration of the planets and of fire.

IV. As to the /deuces or arts of the old Per-r
/ans, I have little to fay ; and no complete evi-
dence of them fe<ems to exift. Mohsan fpeaks
more than once of ancient verfes in the Pahlav'i
language ; and Bauman aflured me, that fome
fcanty remains of them had been preferved :
their mufick and painting, which Niza'mi ce-
lebrated, have irrecoverably perifhed ; and in re-
gard to Ma'ni', the painter and impoftor, whofe
book of drawings called Artang, which he prev
tended to be divine, is fuppofed to have been
deftroyed by the Chinefe, in whofe dominions
he had fought refuge, the whole tale is too mo-
dern to throw any light on the queftions before

ON THE PERSIANS.

133

us concerning the origin of nations and the in-
habitants of the primitive world.

Thus has it been proved by clear evidence and
plain reafoning, that a powerful monarchy was
eftabliflied in Iran long before the JJj'yrian, or
Pijhdddi^ government ; that it was in truth a
Hindu monarchy, though, if any chufe to call it
Cujian^ Cafdean, or Scythian^ we fliall not enter
into a debate on mere namfts ; that it fubfifted
many centuries, and that its hiftory has been in-
grafted on that of the Hindus, who founded the
monarchies of Hyodbyd and Indraprejlha ; that
the language of the lirft Perfum empire was the
mother of the Sanferit, and confequcnlly of the
Zend, and Parfi,.3L9. well as of Greek, Latin, and
Goihick ; that the language of the JJfyrians was
the parent of Chaldaick and Pahlav'i, and that
the primary Tartarian language alfo "had been
current in the fame empire; although, as the
Tartars had no books or even letters, we cannot
with certainty trace their unpolilhed and variable
idioms. We difeover, thercfoi'e, in Perjia, at
the earliell dawn of hidory, the three diftind:
races of men, whom we deferibed on former oc-
cafions as pofleffors of India, Arabia, Tartary ;
and, whether they were colleded in Iran from
diftant regions, or diverged .from it, as from a
common centre, we fhall eafily determine by the
following confiderations. Let us obferve in the

13+ THE SIXTH DISCOURSE,

firft place the central pofition of Iran^ which is
bounded by Arabia^ by Tartarjy and by India ;
whilft Arabia lies contiguous to Iran only, but
is remote from Tartary, and divided even from
the fkirts of India by a confiderable gulf; no
country, therefore, but Ferjia feems likely to
have fent forth its colonies to all the kingdoms
of AJia: the Brdbjnatjs could never have mi-
grated from India to Iran, becaufe they are ex-
prefsly forbidden by their oldeft exifting laws tor
leave the region, which they inhabit at this day ;
the Arabs have not even a tradition of an emi-
gration into Perjia before Mohammed, nor had
they indeed any inducement to quit their beau-
tiful and extenfiive domains; and, as to the Tar-
tars, we have no trace in hiftory of their depar-
ture from their plains and forefts, till the invafion
of the Medes, \X’ho, according to etymologifts,
were the fons of Madai, and even they were
conduced by princes of an Ajfyrian family.
The three races, therefc^e, whom we have already
mentioned, (and more than three we have not
yet found) migrated from Iran, as from their
common country ; and thus the Saxon chronicle,
I prefume from good authority, brings the firfl:
inhabitants of- Britain from Armenia ; while a
late very learned writer concludes, after all his
laborious refearches, that the Goths or Scythians
came from PerJia ; and another contends with

ON THE PERSIANS.

Uj

great force, that both the Irifi and old Britons
proceeded feverally from the borders of the Caf-
pian ; a coincidence of conclufions from different
media by perfons wholly linconneded, which
could fcarce have happened, if they w(?re not
grounded on folid principles. We may there-
fore hold this propolition firmly eflabliflicd, that
Iran, or Perjia in its largeft fenfe, was the true
centre of population, of knowledge, of languages,
and of arts ; which, inftead of travelling well-
ward only, as it has been fancifully luppofed, or
eaflward, as might with equal reafon have been
aflerted, were expanded in all diredions to all
the regions of the world, in which the Hindu
race had fettled under various denominations :
but, whether yffia has not produced other races
of men, diftind from the Hindus^ the Arabfi, or
the Tartars, or wdiether any apparent divcrlity
may not liave fprung from an intermixture of
thofe three in different proportions, muft be the
Uibjed 'of a future inquiry. There is another
queftion of more immediate importance, which
you, gentlemen, only can decide : namely, “ by
“ what means we can preferve our Society fi'om
“ dying gradually away, as it has advanced gra-
“ dually to its prefent (fhall I fay. flourifhing or
“ languifhing ?) ftate.'’ It has fubliflcd live years
without anyexpenfetothe members of it, until the
firfj: volume of our Tranfadious was publifhed;

136 THE SIXTH DISCOURSE, &-c.

and the price of that large volume, if we com*
pare the different values of money in Bengal
and in England, is not more than equal to the
annual contribution towards the charges of the
Royal Society by each of its fellows, who may
not have chofen to compound for it on his ad-
miflion : this I mention, not from an idea that
any of us could objedl to the purchafe of one
copy at leaft, but from a wifh to inculcate the
neccffity of oUr common exertions in promoting
the fale of the work both here and in London,
In vain (hall we meet, as a literary body, if our
meetings lhall ceafe to be fupplied with original
differtations and memorials ; and in vain fhall
we colledl the moft interefting papers, if we
cannot publifh them occfefionally without ex-
pofing the Superintendents of the Company’s
prefs, who undesitake to print them at their own
hazard, to the danger of a confiderable lofs : by
united efforts the French have compiled their
ftupendous repofitories of univerfal knowledge ;
and by united efforts only can we hope to rival
them, or to diffufc over our own country and
the reft of Europe the lights attainable by our
AJiatkk Refearcbes.

THE SEVENTH

ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE,

DELIVERED 25 FEBRUARY, 1790.

THE PRESIDENT.

GEN'l'LF.MEK,

Although we are at this moment confidcr-
ably nearer to the frontier of China than to the
fartheft limit of the Britijh dominions in LC«-
diijldn, yet the firft ftep, that we fhall take in
the philofophical journey, which ! propofe for
your entertainment at the prefent meeting, will
carry us to the utmoft verge of the habitable
globe known to the beft geographers of old
Greece and Egypt beyond the boundary of
whofe knowledge we fhall difcern from the
heights of the northern mountains an empire
nearly equal in furface to a fquare of fifteen de-
grees; an empire, of which I do not mean to
affign the precife limits, but .which we may con-
fider, for the purpofe of this diflertation, as em-
braced on two fides by Tariary and India, w'hile

138 THE SEVENTH DISCOURSE,

the ocean feparates its other fides from various
j4jiatick ifles of great importance in the com-
mercial fyftem of Europe : annexed to that im-
menfe tra£t of land is the peninfula of Corea,
■which a vaft oval bafon divides from Nifon or
Japan, a celebrated and imperial ifland, bearing
in arts and in arms, in advantage of fituation
but not in felicity of government, a pre-emi-
nence among eaftern kingdoms analogous to
that of Britain among the nations of the weft.
So many climates are included in fo prodigious
an area, that, while the principal emporium of
China lies nearly under the tropick, its metro-
polis enjoys the temperature of Samarkand ;
fuch too is the diverfity of foil in its fifteen pro-
vinces, that, while fome of them are exquifitely
fertile, richly cultivated, and extremely populous,
others are barremand rocky, dry and unfruitful,
with plains as wild or mountains as rugged as
any in Scythia, and thofe either wholly deferted,
or peopled by favage hordes, who, if they be not
ftill independent, have been very lately fubdued
by the perfidy, rather than the valour, of a mo-
narch, who has perpetuated his own breach of
faith in a Cbineje poem, of which I have feen a
tranflation.

The .word China, concerning which I fiiall
offer forae new remarks, is well known to the
people, whom we call the Chineje\ but they

ON THE CHINESE.

139

never apply it (I fpeak of the learned among
them) to themfelves or to their country : them-
felves, according to Father Visdelou, they de-
fcribe as the people of Han, or of feme other
illuftrious family, by the memory of whofe ac-
tions they flatter their national pride i and their
country they call Chum-cue, or the Central King-
dom, reprefenting it in their fymbolical charac-
ters by a parallelogram exadtly biflTedied : at
other times they diftinguifh it by the words
Tien-hia, or JVhat is under Heaven, meaning all
that is valuable on Earth. Since they never name
themfelves with moderation, they would have
no right to complain, if they knew, that Euro-
pean authors have ever fpoken of them in the
extremes of applaufe or of cenfure : by fome
they have been extolled as the oldeft and the
wifeft, as the moft learned and moft ingenious,
of nations j whilft others have derided their
pretenfions to antiquity, condemned their govern-
ment as abominable, and arraigned their man-
ners as inhuman, without allowing them an
element of fcience, or a Angle art, for which
they have not been indebted to fome more an-
cient and more civilized race of men. The truth
perhaps lies, where we ufually flntl it, between
the extremes ; but it is not my defign to accufe
or to defend the Chinefe, to deprefs or to ag-
grandize them : I ihall confine myfelf to the dif-

VOL. I. M

UO HIE SEVENTH DISCOURSE,

Guffion of a queftion connedted with my former
difcourfes, and far lefs eaCy to be folved than any
hitherto ftarted. “ Whence came the fmgular
“ people, who long had governed China, before
“ they were conquered by the Tartars On
this problem, the folution of which has no con-
cern, indeed, with our political or commercial
interefts, but a very material connedlion, if I
miftake not, with interefts of a higher nature,
four opinions have been advanced, and all rather
peremptorily aflerted, than fupported by argu-
ment and evidence. By a few writers it has
been urged, that the Chinefe are an original race,
who have dwelled for ages, if not from eternity,
in the land, which they now poflefs ; by others,
and chiefly by the miffionaries, it is infifted, that
they fprang from the fame ftock with the He-
brews and ylrahs ; a third aflertion is that of the
Jurats themfelvcs and ofM. Pauw, who hold it
indubitable, that they were originally Tartars
defeending in wild clans from the fteeps of Imaus ;
and a fourth, at leaft as dogmatically pronounced
as any of the preceding, is that of the Brahmens^
who decide, without allowing any appeal from
their decilion, that the Chinas (for fo they are
named in Sanjerit ) were Hindus of the CJhatriya,
or military, clafs, who, abandoning the privileges
of their tribe, rambled in different bodies to the
north-eaft of Bengal j and, forgetting by degrees

ON THE CHINESE.

141

the rites and religion of their anceflors, eftablifli-
ed feparate principalities, which were afterwards
united in the plains and valleys, whicJi arc now
pofTefled by them. If any one of the three lad
opinions be juft, the lirft of them muft ncccl-
farily be reliilquiftied ; but of thofc three, tlic
firft cannot poftibly be fuflaincd ; becaufo It
refts on no firmer fupport than a foolifli remark j
whether true or falfe, that Sem in CbineJ'e means
life and procreation and becaufe a tea- pi ant is
not more different from a palm, than a Cbincfe
from an ^rab : they are men, indeed, as the. tea
and the palm are vegetables ; but human faga-
city could not, I believe, difeover any other trace
of fefcmblance between them. One of the Arabs^
indeed, an account of whofe voyage to India and
China hasbecn tranflated by Re n au dot, thought
the Chitieje not only handfomef (according to
his ideas of beauty) than the Hindus, but even
more like his own countrymen in features, ha-
biliments, carriages, manners and ceremonies ;
and jthis may be true, without proving an aiSlual
refemblancc between the Chinefc and Arabs, ex-
cept in drefs and complexion. The next opinion
. is" more connected with that of the Brahmens,
than M. Pauw, probably, imagined; for though
he tells us exprefsly, tlhat by Beythians he meant
the Turks or Tartars', yet the dragon on the
ftandard, and foijie other peculiarities, frora

142 THE SEVENTH DISCOURSE,

which he would infer a clear affinity between
the old Tartars and the Chinefe, belonged indu-
bitably to thofc Scythians, who are known to
have been Goths ; and the Goths had manifeftly
a common lineage with the Hindus, if his own
argument, in the preface to his Refearches, on
the fimilarity of language, be, as all men agree
that it is, irrefragable. That the Chinefe were
anciently of a Tartarian flock, is a propofition,
which I cannot otherwife difprove for the pre-
fent, than by infilling on the total diffimilarity
of the two races in manners and arts, particularly
in the fine arts of imagination, which the Tar^
tars, by their own account, never cultivated j but,
if we fhow ftrong grounds for believing, that
the firft Chinefe were actually of an Indian race,
it will follow that M. Pauw and the Arabs are
miflaken : it is ‘to the difcuffion of this new and,
in my opinion, very interefling point, that I
lhall confine the remainder of my difcourfe.

In the Sojifcrit Inflitutes of Civil and Reli-
gious Duties, revealed, as the Hindus believe, by
Menu, the fon of Brahma', we find the fol-
lowing curious pafTage : “ Many families of the
“ military clafs, having gradually abandoned the
ordinances of the Veda^ and the company of
“ Brahmens, lived in a flate of degradation j as
“ the people of Pundraca and Odra, thofe of
“ Dravira and Cafoboja, the Tavanas and Sacas,

ON THE CHINESE.

143

“ the Parados and Pabltwas^ the Chinas and
“ feme other nations.” A full comment on
this text would here be fuperfluous ; but, fince
the teftimony of the Indian author, who, though
certainly not a divine perfonage, was as certainly
a very ancient lawyer, moralift, and hiftorian,
is diredl and pofitive, difmterefted and unfuf-
pedled, it would, I think, decide the queftion
before us, if we could be fure, that the word
China fignified a Cbinefe^ as all the Pandits^
whom I have feparately confulted, aflert with
one voice : they aflure me, that the Chinas of
Menu fettled in a fine country to the north-eaft
of Gaur^ and to the eall of Cdmariip and Nepal ;
that they have long been, and ftill are, famed as
ingenious artificers ; and that they had them-
felves feen old Cbinefe idols, which bore a ma-
nifeft relation to the primitive ftligiori of India
before Buddha’s appearance in it. A well-
informed Pandit ftiowed me a Sanjirit book in
Cajhmirian letters, which, he faid, was revealed
by Siva himfelf, and entitled SaStiJangama: he
read to me a whole chapter of it on the hetero»-
dox opinions of the Chinas^ who were divided,
fays the author, into near two hundred clans.
I then laid before him a map of JJia ; and,
when I pointed to Q^mir^ his own country, he
inftantly placed his finger on the north- weftern
provinces of China, where the Chinas, he faid.

144 THE SEVENTH DISCOURSE,

firft eftablifhed tliemfelves ; but he added, that
Mahdchhni^ which w^as alfo mentioned in his
book, extended to the eaftern and fouthern
oceans. I believe, neverthclefs, that the Chinefe
empire, as we now call it, was not formed vidien
the laws of Menu were colledled ; and for this
belief, fo repugnant to the general opinion, I
am bound to offer my reafons. If the outline
of hiftory and chronology for the laft two thou-
fand years be corre<illy traced, (and we muft be
hardy fcepticks to doubt it) the poems of Ca'-
■lida's were compofed before the beginning of
our era : now it is clear, from internal and ex-
ternal evidence, that the Rdmdyan and Mahdh-
hdrat were conflderably older than the produc-
tions of that poet ; and it appears from the
flyle and metre of the Dherma Sdjlra revealed
by Menu, that it was reduced to writing long
before the age ofVA LMic or Vya'sa, the fecond
of whom names it with applaufe : we fhall not,
therefore, be thought extravagant, if we place
the compiler of thofe laws between a thoufand
and fifteen hundred years before Christ ; eC-
pecially as Buddha, whofe age is pretty well
afeertained, is not mentioned in them ; but, in
the twelfth century before our era, the Chinefe
empire was at leaft in its cradle. This fadl it is
jieceffary to prove ; and my firft witnefs is Con-.
yicius himfclf. 1 know to what keen fatire J

ON THE 'CHINESE.

U5

lhall expofe myfelf by citing that phllofopher,
after the bitter farcafms of M. Pauw againft
him and againft the tranflators of his mutilated,
but valuable, works : yet I quote without fcruple
the book entitled Lun Yu, of which I poflefs the
original with a verbal tranflation, and which I
know to be fufficiently authentick for my prefent
purpofe : in the fecond part of it Con-fu-tsu
declares, that “ Although he, like other men,
“ could relate, as mere leflbns of morality, the
“ hiftories of the lirft and fecond imperial houfes,
“ yet, for want of evidence, he could givq no
“ certain account of them.” Now, if the Chi-
ne fe themfelves do not even pretend, that any
hiftorical monuments exifted, in the age of
Confucius, preceding the rife of their third
dynafty about eleven hundred years before the
Chrijlian epoch, we may juftly cbncFude, that

I

the reign of Vu'vam was in the infancy of their
empire, which hardly grew to maturity till fome
ages after that prince j and it has been afterted
by very learned Europeans, that even of the third
dynafty, which he has the fame of having raifed,
no unfufped:cd memorial can now be produced.
It was not till the eighth century before the birth
of our Saviour, that a fmall kingdom was erefted
in the province of SSen-si, the capital of which
flood nearly in the thirty -fifth degree of northern
latitude, and about five degrees to the weft of

146 THE SEVENTH DISCOURSE,

Si-gan: both the country and its metropolis
were called CA/aj and the dominion of its princes
was gradually extended to the eaft and weft. A
king of Chirif who miakes a figi^re in the Sbdb-
ndmah among the allies of Afra'siya'b, was, I
prefume, a fovereign of the country juft menr
tioned ; and the river of Chin, which the poet
frequently names as the limit of his eaftern geo-
graphy, feems to have been the Tdlow Rivery
which the Cbineje introduce at the beginning of
their fabulous annals: I ftiould be tempted to
expatiate on fo curious a fubjeft ; but the pre-
fent occafion allows nothing fuperfluous, and
permits me only to add, f.hat Mangukhdn died,
in the middle of the thirteenth century, before
the city of Chin, which was afterwards taken by
Kublai, and that the poets of Iran perpetually
allude to the diftri£ts around it which they ce-
lebrate, with Cbegil and Kboten, for a number
of mulk-animals roving on their hills. The
territory of Chin, fo called by the old HinduSy
by the Perjians, and by the Cbineje (while ^he
Greeks and Arabs were obliged by their defeftive
articulation to mifeal it Sin) gave its name to a
race of emperors, whofe tyranny made their
memory fo unpopular, that the modern inha-
|)it^ts of China hpld the'word in abhorrence,
and fpeak of themfelves as the people of a milder
and more virtuous dynafty; but it is highly

ON THE CHINESE.

147

probable that the whole nation defcended from
the Chinas of Menu, and, mixing with the Tar-~
tars^ by whom the plains of Honan and the
more fouthern provinces were thinly inhabited,
formed by degrees the race of men, whom we
now fee in poffeffion of the nobleft empire in
4fia.

In fupport of an opinion, which I offer as the
refult of long and anxious inquiries, I fhould re-
gularly proceed to examine the language and let-
ters, religion and philofophy, of the prefent Cbi-
nefe^ and fubjoin fome remarks on their ancient
monuments, on their fciences, and on their arts
both liberal and mechanical: but their fpoken
language^ not having been preferved by the ufual
fymbols of articulate founds, muft have been for
many ages in a continual flux ; their letters^ if
we may fo cdll them, are merelj^ the fymbols of
ideas ; their popular religion was imported from
India in an age comparatively modern ; and their
philofophy feems yet in fo rude a ftate, as hardly
to deferve the appellation ; they have no ancient
monuments, from which their origin can be traced
even by plaufible conjecture j their fciences are
. v^holly exotick j and their mechanical arts have
nothing in them charaCteriftick of a particular
family; nothing, which any fet of men, in a
country fo highly favoured by nature, might not
have difcovered and improved. They have in-

UH THE SEVENTH DISCOURSE,

deed, both national mulick and national poetry,
and both of them beautifully pathetick ; but of
painting, fculpture, or architedlure, as arts of
imagination, they fe^m (like other Afiaticks ) to
have no idea. Inftead, therefore, of enlarging
feparately on each of thofe heads, I ihall briefly
inquire, how far the literature and religious prac-
tices of China confirm or oppofe the propofition,
which 1 have advanced.

The declared and fixed opinion of M. de
Guignes, on the fubje<ft before us, is nearly
connected with that of the Brahmens : he main-
tains, that the Chinefe were emigrants from
Egypt i and the Egyptians^ or Ethiopians, (for
they were clearly the fame people) had in-
dubitably a common origin with the old natives
of India, as the affinity of their languages, and
of their iriftitutions, both religious and political,
fully evinces ; but that China was peopled a few
centuries before our era by a colony from the
banks of the Nile, though neither Berjians nor
Arabs, Tartars nor Hindus, ever heard of fuch
an emigration, is a paradox, which the bare au-
thority even of fo learned a man cannot fuppon ;
and, fince reafon grounded on fadls can alone
decide fuch a queftion, we have a right to de-
mand clearer evidence and* ftronger arguments,
than any that he has adduced. The hierogly-
phicks of Egypt bear, indeed, a ftrong refera-

ON THE CHINESE.

149

■blance to the mythological fculptures and paint-
ings of India, but feem wholly diffimilar to the
fymbolical fyftem of the Cbinefe, which might
eafily have been invented (as they affert) by an
individual, and might very naturally have been
contrived by the firft Chinas, or out-caft Hindus,
who either never knew, or had forgotten, the
alphabetical charadiers of their wifer anceftors.
As to the table and bulls of Isis, they feem to
be given up as modern forgeries; but, if they
were indifputably genuine, they would be nothing
to the purpofe ; for the letters on the bull ap-
pear to have been deligned as alphabetical ; and
the fiibricator of them (if they really were fa-
bricated in Europe) was uncommonly happy,
fince two or three of them are exadly the fame
with thofe on a metal pillar yet Handing in the
north of India. In Egypt, if* we can rely on
the teftimony of the Greeks, who fludied no
language but their own, there were two fets of
alphabetical charadlers ; the one popular, like
the various letters ufed in our Indian provinces ;
and the other facerdotal, like the Hevandgari,
efpecially that form of it, which we fee in the
V eda ; befides which they had two forts of facred
Jculpture ; the one limple, like • the figures of
Buddha and the three Ra'mas ; and the other,
allegorical, like the images of Gane'sa, or Di-
vine Wifdom, and Isa'ni', or Nature, with all

150

THE SEVENTH DISCOURSE,

their emblematical accompaniments; but the
real character of the Chinefe appears wholly
diftindt from any Egyptian writing, either mys-
terious or popular ; and, as to the fancy of M.
DE Guignrs, that the complicated fymbols of
China were at firft no more than Phenician mo-
nograms, let us hope, that he has abandoned fo
wild a conceit, which he flatted probably with
no other view than to difplay his ingenuity and
learning.

We have ocular proof, that the few radical
charadlers of the Cbine/e were originally (like
our aflronomical and chymical fymbols) the pic-
tures or outlines of vifible objedls, or figurative
figns for fimple ideas, which they have multiplied
by the moft ingenious combinations and the
livelieft metaphors ; but, as the fyflem is peculiar,
I believe, to themfelves and the Japanefe, ifwould
be idly oftentatious to enlarge on it at prefent ;
and, for the reafons already intimated, it neither
corroborates nor weakens the opinion, which I
endeavour to fupport. The fame may as truly be
faid of their Jpoken language; for, independently
of its conftant fludluation during a feries of ages,
it has the peculiarity of excluding four or five
founds, which - other nations articulate, and is
clipped into monofyllables, even when the ideas
exprelSed by them, and the written fymbols for
thofe ideas, are very complex. This has arifen,

ON THE CHINESE.

151

I fuppofe, from the fingular habits of the people ;
for, though their common tongue be fo mufically
accented as to form a kind of recitative, yet it
wants thofe grammatical accents, without which
all human tongues would appear monofyllabick :
thus Amita, with an accent on the firft fyllable,
means, in the Sanfcrit language, immeajurable ;
and the natives of Bengal pronounce it Omito ;
but, when the religion of Buddha, the fon of
Ma'ya', was carried hence into Cbina^ the
people of that country, unable to pronounce the
name of their new God, called him Fop, the
fon of Mo-ye, and divided his epithet Amita
into three fyllables O-mi-to, annexing to them
certain ideas of their own, and exprefling them
in writing by three diftind fymbols. VV’e may
judge from this inftance, whether a comparifon
of their fpoken tongue with the^dialedis of other
nations can lead to any certain conclufion as to
their origin; yet the inftance, which I have
given, fupplies me with an argument from ana-
logy, which I produce as conjedfural only, but
which appears more and more phiufible, the
oftener I conlider it. The Buddha of the
Hindus is unqueftionably the Foe of China 'y but
the great progenitor of the Cbinefe is alfo named
by them Fo-hi, where the fecond monofyllable
fignifies, it feems, a vidtim: now the anceftor
of that military tribe, whom the Hindus call the

1S2 THE SEVENTH HlSCOtTRSE,

Chandravanfa, or Children of the Moon, wats#
according to their Pur anas or legends, Bud ha,
or the genius of the planet Mercury, from whom,
in the fifth degree, defcended a prince named
Druhya ; whom his father Yaya'ti fent in
exile to the eaft of Hindu/tdn, with this impre-
cation, “ may thy progeny be ignorant of the
“ Peda” The name of the banifhed prince
could not be pronounced by the modern Chinefe ;
and, though I dare not conjedture, that the laft
fyllable of it has been changed into Yao, I may
ncverthelefs obferve that Yao was the fifth in
defeent from Bo-hi, or at leaft the fifth mortal
in the firft imperial dynafty; that all Chinefe
hiftory before him is confidered by Chinefe. them-
felves as poetical or fabulous ; that his father
Ti-co, like the Indian king Yaya'ti, was the
firft prince whd married feveral women; and
that Fo-hi, the head of their race, appeared, fay
the Chinefe, in a province of the weft, and held
his court in the territory of Chin, where the
rovers, mentioned by the Indian legiflator, are
fuppofed to have fettled. Another circumftance
in the parallel is very remarkable ; according to
father De Premare, in his trad on Chinefe
mythology, the mother of Fo-hi was the Daugh-
ter of Heaven, furnamed filoxver-loving, and, as
the nymph was walking alone on the bank of a
river with a fimilar name, ftie found herfelf on a

ON THE CHINESE.

n%

fudden encircled by a rain-bow % foon after which
fhe became pregnant, and at the end of twelve
years was delivered of a fon radiant as herfclf,
who, among other titles, had that of Su'i, or
Star of the Tear. Now in the mythological
fyftem of the Hindus, the nymph Ro'hini', who
prefides over the fourth lunar manfion, was the
favourite miftrefs of So ma, or the Moon, among
whofe numerous epithets we find Cumudandyacciy
or Delighting in a fpecies of zvater-jloxver, that
bloflbms at night ; and their olFspiing was
Bud HA, regent of a planet, and called alfo, from
the names of his parents, Rauhine'ya or
Saumya: it is true, that the learned miflionary
explains the word Su'i by fupiter'y but an cxad:
refemblance between two fuch fables could not
have been expected j and it is fufficient for my
purpofe, that they feem to have a family likenefs.
The God Budha, fay the Indians, married Ida ,
whofe father was preferved in a miraculous ark
from an univerfal deluge : now, although I can-
not infift with confidence, that the rain-bow in
the Chincfe fable alludes to the Mofaick narrative
of the flood, nor build any folid argument on
the divine perfonage Niu-va, of whofe cha-
ra£ter, and even of whofe fex, the hiftorians of
China fpeak very doubtfully, -I may, neverthelefs,
alTure you, after full inquiry and confideration,
that the Chinefe, like the Hindus^ believe this

154 THE SEVENTH DISCOURSE,

earth to have been wholly covered with water,
which, in works of undHputed authenticity, they
defcribe as flowing ahundantlyy then fubfiditgy
and feparating the higher from the lower age of
mankind 'y that the diviflon of timey ftom which
their poetical hiftory begins, juft preceded the
appearance of Fo-hi on the mountiuns of Chiny
but that the great inundation in the reign of
Yao was either confined to the lowlands of
his kingdom, if the whole account of it be not a
fable, or, if it contain any allufion to the flood
of Noah, has been ignorantly mifplaced by the
Chinefe annalifts.

The importation of a new religion into China,
in the firft century of our era, muft lead us to
fuppofe, that the former fyftem, whatever it was,
had been found inadequate to the purpofe of re-
ftraining the greit body of the people from thofe
off ences againft confcience and virtue, which the
civil power could not reach j and it is hardly
poflible that, without fuch reftridtions, any go-
vernment could long have fubfifted with felicity;
for no government can long fubfift without
equal juftice, and juftice cannot be adminiftered
without the fandtions of religion. Of the re-
ligious opinions, entertained by Confucius and
his followers, we may glean a general notion
from the fragments of their works tranflated by
Couplet; they profefled a firm belief in the

ON THE CHINESE.

iSS

fupfeme God, and gave a demonftration of his
being and of his providence from the exquifite
beauty and perfedlion of the celeftial bodies, and
the wonderful order of nature in the whole fa-
brick of the vifible world. From this belief
they deduced a fyftem of Ethicks, which the
philofopher fums up in a few words at the clofe
of the Liin-yii : He,” fays Confucius, “ who
“ fhall be fully perfuaded, that the Lord of
“ Heaven governs the univerfe, who fhall in all
“ things chufe moderation, who fhall perfectly

know his own fpecies, and fo a£t among them,
“ that his life and manners may conform to his
“ knowledge of. God and man, may be truly
“ faid to difcharge all the duties of a fage, and
“ to be far exalted above the common herd of
“ the human race.” But fuch a religion and
fuch morality could never have been general ;
and we find, that the people of China had an an-
cient fyftem of ceremonies and fuperftitions,
which the government and the philofophers ap-
pear to have encouraged, and which has an ap-
parent affinity with fome parts of the oldeft /«-
dian worfhip : they believed in the agency of
genii or tutelary fpirits, prefiding over the ftars
and the clouds, over lakes and riveVs, mountains,
valleys, and woods, over certain regions and
towns, over all the elements (of which, like the
Hindus, they reckoned jive) and particularly

VOL. I. N

156

THE SEVENTH DISCOURSE,

over fire, the moft brilliant of them : to thofci
deities they offered victims on high places ; and
the following paffage from the Shi-cin, or Book
of Odes, is very much in the ftyle of the Brdh~
mam : “ Even they, who perform a facrifice with
“ due reverence, cannot perfectly alTure them-
“ felves, that the divine fpirits accept their ob-
“ lations j and far lefs can they, who adore the
“ Gods with languor and ofcitancy, clearly per-
“ ceive their facred illapfes.” Thefe are im-
perfect traces indeed, but they are traces, of an
affinity between the religion of Menu and that
of the Chinas, whom he names among the apof-
tates from it: M. Le Gentil obfervcd, he fays,
a ftrong refemblance between the funeral rites of
the Chinefe and the Srdddba of the Hindus:
and M. Bailly, after a learned inveftigation,
concludes, that “ Even the puerile ^nd abfurd
“ (lories of the Chinefe fabulifts cpntain a rem-
*• nant of ancient Indian hiftory, with a faint
“ fketch of the firft Hindu ages.” As the Baudd-
has, indeed, were Hindus, it may naturally be
imagined, that they carried into China many
ceremonies praClifed in their own country j
but the Bauddbas pofitively forbad the immo-
lation of cattle ; yet we kpow, that various ani-
mals, evdfi bulls and men, were anciently fa-
crificed by the Chinefe ; befides which we dif-
cover many fingular marks of relation between

ON THE CHINESE.

157

them and the old Hindus : as in the remarkable
period of four hundred and thirty two thoufandt
and the cycle of fixty.^ years-; in the prediledlion
for the myftical number nine ; in many fimilar
fafts and great feftivals, efpecially at the folftices
and equinoxes; in the juft-mentioned obfequies
confifting of rice and fruits offered to the manes
of their anceftors ; in the dread of dying child-
lefs, left fuch offerings fhould be intermitted ;
and, perhaps, in their common abhorrence of
red objects, which the Indians carried fo far,
that Menu himfelf, where he allows a Brahmen
to trade, if he cannot otherwife fupport life, ab-
folutely forbids “• his trafficking in any fort of
“ red cloths, whether linen or woollen, or made
“ of woven bark.” All the circumftances, which
have been mentioned under th^ two heads of
literature and religion^ feem colledkively to prove
(as far as fuch a queftion admits proof) that the
Chineje and Hindus were originally the fame
people, but having been feparated near four
thoufand years, have retained few ftrong features
of their ancient confanguinity, elpecially as the
Hitidus have preferved their old language and
ritual, while the Chinefe very foon loft both, and
the Hitidus have conftantly intermarried among
themfelves, wffiile the Chinefe, by a mixture of
Tartarian blood from the time of their firft
eftabliffiment, have at length formed _ a race

15» THE &EVENTH DISCOURSE,

fliftindl in appearance both from Indians and
Tartars.

A fimilar diverfity has arifen, I believe, from
fimilar caufes, between the people of China and
Japan ; on the fecond of which nations we have
now, or foon fhall have, as correft and as ample
inftruition as can poflibly be obtained without
a perfcdl acquaintance with the Cbinefe charac-
ters. Kjempfer has taken from M. Titsingh
the honour of being the lirft, and he from
KiRMi’FER that of being the only, European,
who, by a long refidence in Japan, and a fami-
liar intcrcourfe with the principal natives of it,
has been able to collect authentick materials for
the natural and civil hiftory of a country fecluded,
as the Romans ufed to fay of our own ifland,
from the rejl oj the world: the works of thofe
illuftrious travellers will confirm and embellifh
each other; and, when M. Titsingh fliall
have acquired a knowledge of Chineje, to which
a part of his leifurc in Java will be devoted, his
precious colle£lion of books in that language, on
the laws and revolutions, the natural productions,
the arts, manufactures and fciences of Japan,
will be in his hands an inexhauftible mine of
new and important information. Both he and
his predeceflbr alTert with, confidence, and, I
doubt not, with truth, that the Japanefe would
refent, as an infult on their dignity, the bare

ON THE CHINESE.

1:9

fuggeftion of their defcent from the Chiiiefe,
whom they furpafs in feveral of the mechanical
arts, and, what is of greater confequence, in mi-
litary fpirit ; but they do not, I underftand,
mean to deny, that they are a branch of tlie
fame ancient ftem with the people of Cl ina ;
and, were that fa£t ever fo warmly contefted by
them, it might be proved by an invincible ar-
gument, if the preceding part of this difcourle,
on the origin of the Cbinefe, be thought to con-
tain juft reafoning. In the firft place, it fecms
inconceivable, that the Japancfey who never
appear to have been conquerors or conquered,
fliould have adopted the wliole fyftem of Cbinefe
literature with all its inconveniences and intri-
cacies, if an immemorial connexion had not fub-
fifted between the two nations, or, in other
words, if the bold and ingenioifs race, ’who peo-
pled fapan in the middle of the thirteenth cen-
tury before Christ, and, about fix hundred
years afterwards, eftablifhed their monarchy, had
not carried with them the letters and learning,
which they and the Cbinefe had poftefl'ed in
'Common; but my principal argument is, that
the Hindu or Egyptian idolatry has prevailed in
yapan from the earlieft ages; and among the
idols worlhipped, according to K^empfer, in
that country, before the innovations of Sa'cy a or
PuDDHA, whom the Japanefe alfo call Amida,

160

THE SEVENTH DISCOURSE,

we find many of thofe, which we fee every day
in the temples of Bengal ; particularly the god->
defs with many arms, reprefenting the powers
of Nature, in Egypt riamed Isis and here Isa'ni'
or Isi , whofe image, as it is exhibited by the
German traveller, all the Brahmans, to whom I
fhowed it, immediately recognized with a mix-
ture of pleafure and enthufiafm, It is very true,
that the Chinefe differ widely from the natives
of 'Japan in their vernacular dialects, in external
manners, and perhaps in the ftrength of their
mental faculties ; but as wide a difference is ob-
fervable among all the nations of the Gothick fa-
mily; and we might account even for a greater
diflimilarity, by confidcring the number of ages,
during which the feveral fwarms have been fe-
parated from the great Indian hive, to which
they primarily belonged. The modern Japanefe
gave K^mpfer the idea of poliftied Tartars ;
and it is reafonable to believe, that the people of
Japan, who were originally Hindus of the mar-
tial clafs and advanced farther eaftward than the
Chinas, have, like them, infenfibly changed their
features and charaders by intermarriages with
various Tartarian tribes, whom they found
loofely fcattered over their ifles, or who after-
wards fixed their abode in'^them.

Having now Ihown in five difcourfes, that the
Arabs and Tartars were originally diftind races.

ON THE CHINESE.

lol

while the Hindus, Chinefe, and yapanefe pro-
ceeded from another ancient ftem, and that all
the three ftems may be traced to Irhi, as to a
common centre, from which it is highly proba-
ble, that they diverged -in various diredlions
about four thoufand years ago, I may fecm to
have accomplifhed my defign of inveftigating
the origin of the AJiatick nations j but the
qiieftions, which I undertook to difcufs, are not
yet ripe for a ftrid; analytical argument ; and it
will firft be ncceffary to examine with fcrupulous
attention all the detached or infulatcd races of
men, who either inhabit the borders of India,
Arabia, Tartary, Perjia, and China, or are in-
terfperfed in the mountainous and uncultivated
parts of thofe cxtenfive regions. To this exa-
mination I fhall, at our next annual meeting,
allot an entire difcourfe ; and if? after dll our in-
quiries, no more than three primitive races can
be found, it will be a fubfequent confideration,
whether thofe three ftocks had one common
root, and, if they had, by what means that root
was prcferved amid the violent fhocks, which
our whole globe appears evidently to have fuf-
tained.

THE EIGHTH

ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE,

DELIVERED 2t FEBRUARY, 1791.

BT

THE PRESIDENT.

- GENTLEMEN,

W E have taken a general view, at our five laft
annual meetings, of as many celebrated nations,
whom we have proved, as far as the fubjcifi: ad-
mits of proof, to have defcended from three
primitive ftocks, which we call for the prefcnt
Indian, Arabian, Tartarian ; and we .have near-
ly travelled over all ^Jia, if not with a perfedt
coincidence of fentiment, at leaft, with as much
unanimity, as can be naturally expedted in a
large body of men, each of whom muft aflert it
as his right, and confider it as his duty, to de-
cide on all points for himfelf, and never to de-
cide on obfcure points without the beft evidence,
that can polfibly be adduced ; our travels will
this day be concluded, but our hiftorical re-
featches would have been left incomplete, if we
had pafied without attentioit over th? numerous

ON THE BORDERERS, MOUNTAINEERS, &c. 165

races of borderers, who have long been eftablifhed
on the limits of ArMa, Perjia, India, China,
and Tartary f over the wild tribes refiding in the
mountainous parts of thofe extenfive regions;
and the more civilized inhabitants of the iflands
annexed by geographers to their AJiatick divifioa
of this globe.

Let us take our departure from Tdiime near
the gulf of Elanitis, and, having encircled AJia,
with fuch deviations from our courfe as the fub-
je£l; may require, let us return to the point, from
which we began ; endeavouring, if we are able,
to find a nation, who may clearly be fhown, by
juft reafoning from their language, religion, and
manners, to be neither Indians, Arabs, nor Tar-
tars, pure or mixed ; but always remembering,
that any fmall family detached in an early age
from their parent ftock, without letters, with
few ideas beyond objeefts of the firft neceflity,
and confequently with few words, and fixing
their abode on a range of mountains, in an
ifland, or even in a wide region before unin-
habited, might in four or five centuries people
their new country, and would neceflarily form
a new language with no perceptible traces, per-
haps, of that fpoken by their anceftors. Edom
or Idume, and Erythra or Pbcenice, had ori-
ginally, as many believe, a fimilar meaning, and
•were derived from words denoting a red colour }

ie4 ON THE BORDERERS, MOUNTAINEERS,

but, whatever be their derivation, it feems in-
dubitable, that a race of men were anciently
fettled in Idume and in Median^ whom the oldeft
and heft Greek authors call Erythreans who
were very diftin£t from the Arabs ; and whom,
from the concurrence of many ftrong teftimonies,
we may fafely refer to the Indian ftem. M.
D’Herbelot mentions a tradition (which he
treats, indeed, as a fable), that a colony of thofe
Idumeans had migrated from the northern fliores
of the Erythrean fea, and failed acrofs the
Mediterranean to Europe, at' the time fixed by
Chronologers for the paflage of Evander with
his Arcadians into Italy, and that both Greeks
and Romans were the progeny of thofe emi-
grants. It is not on vague and fufpedled tradi-
tions, that we muft build our belief of fuch
events; but Newton, who advanced nothing
in fcience without demonftration, and nothing
in hiftory without fuch evidence as he thought
conclufive, afferts from authorities, which he had
carefully examined, that the Idumean voyagers
carried with them both arts and fciences,
among which were their aftronomy, naviga-
tion, and letters ; for in Idume, fays he, they
had letters, and names for conjiellations, before
the days of Job, who mentions them.” Job,
indeed, or the author of the book, which takes
^ts pame from him, was of the Arabian flock,

AND ISLANDERS OF ASIA.

165

as the language of that fubllme work inconteft-
ably proves j but the invention and propaga-
tion of letters and aftronomy are by all fo juftly
afcribed to the Indian faniily, that, if Strabo
and Herodotus were not grofsly deceived, the
adventurous Idumeans, who lirft gave names to
the ftars, and hazarded long voyages in llrips of
their own conftrudiion, could be no other than a
branch of the Hindu race : in all events, there is
no ground for believing them of a fourth difl:in<5
lineage ; and we need fay no more of them, till
we meet them again, on our return, under the
name of Pbenicians,

As we pafs down the formidable fea, which
rolls over its coral bed between the coaft of the
Arabs, or thofe, who fpeak the pure language of
Ismail, and that of the Ajams, or thofe, who
mutter it barbaroujly, we find no Certain traces,
on the Arabian fide, of any people, who were
not originally Arabs of the genuine or mixed
breed: anciently, perhaps, there were Troglo-
dytes in part of the peninfula, but they feem tq
have been long fupplanted by the Nomades, or
wandering herdfinen ; and who thofe Troglodytes
were, we (hall fee very clearly, if we deviate a
few moments from our intended path, and make
a Abort excurfion into countries very lately ex-
plored on the Weftern, or African, fide of the
Red Sea.

166 ON THE BORDERERS, MOUNTAINEERS,

That the written ^byjfmian language, which
we call Etbiopich, is a dialed^ of old Chaldean,
and a fifter of Arabich and Hebrew, we know
with certainty, not only from the great multitude
of identical words, but (which is a far ftronger
proof) from the fimilar grammatical arrangement
of the fcveral idioms : we know at the fame time,
that it is written, like all the Indian charadfers,
from the left hand to the right, and that the
vowels are annexed, as in Hevandgari, to the
confonants ; with which they form a fyllabick
fyftcm extremely clear and convenient, but dif-
pofed in a lefs artificial order than the fyftem of
letters now exhibited in the Sanferit grammars ;
whence it may juftly be inferred, that the order
contrived by Pa nini or his difciples is com-
paratively modern ; and I have no doubt, from
a curfory examination of many old inferiptions
on pillars and in caves, which have obligingly
been fent to me from all parts of India, that the
Ndgar't and Ethiopian letters had at firft a fimilar
form. It has long been my opinion, that the
Abyjfinians of the Arabian Hock, having no fym-
bols of their own to reprefent articulate founds,
borrowed thofe of the black pagans, whom the
Greeks call Troglodytes, from their primeval ha-
bitations in natural caverns, or in mountains ex-
cavated by their own labour: they were probably
|he firft inhabitants of Africa, where they be-

AND ISLANDERS OF ASIA.

167

came in time the builders of magnificent cities,
the founders of feminaries for the advancement
of fcience and philofophy, and the inventors (if
they were not rather the importers) of fymbolical
characters. I believe on the whole, that the
Etbiops of Meroe were the fame people with the
firft Egyptians, and confequently, as it might
eafily be fhowni with the original Hindus. To
the ardent and intrepid Mr. Bruce, whofe
travels are to my tafte uniformly agreeable and
fatisfaClory, though he thinks very differently
from me on the language and genius of the
Arabs, wc are indebted for more important, and,
I believe, more accurate, information concerning
the nations eftabliflied near the Nile from its
fountains to its mouths, than all Europe united
could before have fupplied ; but, fince he has
not been at the pains to compare the feven lan-
guages, of which he has exhibited a fpecimen,
and fince I have not leifure to make the com-
parifon, I muft be fatisfied with obferving, on
his authority, that the dialeCts of the Gajots and
the Gallas, the Agows of both races, and the
Falajhas, who muft originally have tifed a Chal-
dean idiom, were never preferved in writing,
and the Ambarick only in modern times : they
muft, therefore, have been for ages in fluctuation,
and can lead, perhaps, to no certain conclufion
as to the origin of the feveral tribes, who an-

168 ON THE BORDERERS, MOUNTAINEERS,

ciently fpoke them. It is very remarkable, as
Mr. Bruce and Mr. Bryant have proved,
that the Greeks gave the appellation of Indians
both to the fouthern nations of Ajrick and to
the people, among we now live j nor is it lefs
obfervable, that, according to Ephorus quoted
by Strabo, they called all the fouthern nations
in the world Ethiopians, thus iifing Indian and
Ethiop as convertible terms : but we muft leave
the gymnofophifts of Ethiopia, who feem to have
profefled the doftrines of Buddha, and enter
the great Indian ocean, of which their AJiatick
and African brethren w’ere probably the firft
navigators.

On the iflands near Yemen we have little to
remark : they appear now to be peopled chiefly
by Mohammedatis, and afford no marks of dif-
crimination, with which I am acquainted, either
in language or manners ; but I cannot bid fare-
wel to the coafl of Arabia, without affuring you,
that, whatever may be faid of Omtndn, and the
Scythian colonies, who, it is imagined, were for-
merly fettled there, I have met with no trace in
the maritime part of Yemen, from Aden to Maf-
kat, of any nation, who were not either Arabs
or AbyJJinian invaders.

Between that country and Iran are fome
iflands, which, from their infignificance in our
prefent inquiry, may here be neglected ; and, as

AND ISLANDERS OF ASIA.

169

to the CurdSy or other independent races, who
inhabit the branches of Taurus or the banks of
Euphrates and TigriSy they have, I believe, no
written language, nor any certain memorials of
their origin : it has, indeed, been aflerted by
travellers, that a race of wanderers in Diydrbecr
yet fpeak the Chaldaick of our feripture; and
the rambling Turemdns have retained, I imagine,
fome traces of their Tartarian idioms ; but, fince
no veftige appears, from the gulf of Perjia to
the rivers Cur and AraSy of any people diftindt
from the Arabs, Perjians, or TartarSy we may
conclude, that no fuch people exifts in the Ira-
nian mountains, and return to thofe, which fe-
parate Iran from India. The principal in-
habitants of the mountains, called Pdrficiy where
they run towards the weft, Parvetiy from a
known Sanferit word, where fhey turn in an
eaftern direction, and Paropamifus, where they
join Imaus in the north, were anciently dif-
tinguiflied among the Brahmans by the name
of Deradas, but feem to have been deftroyed or
expelled by the numerous tribes of Afghans or
Patans, among whom are the Balojas, who give
their name to a mountainous diftrid ; and there
is very folid ground for believing, that the Af-
ghans defeended from the feivs ; becaufe they
fometimes in confidence avow that unpopular
origin, which in general they feduloully conceal,

170 ON THE BORDERERS, MOUNTAINEERS,

and which other Mufelmans pofitively aflert 5
becaufe Hazaret, which appears to be the
reib of Esdras, is one of their territories ; and,
principally, becaufe itheir language is evidently
a dialed! of the fcriptural Chaldaick.

We come now to the river Sindhu and the
country named from it : near its mouths we find
a diftridl, called by Ne arch us, in his journal,
Sangada ‘y which M. D’Anvillr juftly fup-
pofes to be the feat of the Sangatiians, a bar-
barous and piratical nation mentioned by modern
travellers, and well known at prefent by our
countrymen in the weft of India. Mr. Malet,
now refidcnt at Pima on the part of the Britijh
government, procured at my requeft the San-
ganian letters, which are a fort of Ndgari, and
a fpecimen of their language, which is apparently
derived, like other Indian dialedls, from the
Sanjerii ; nor can I doubt, from the deferiptions,
which I have received, of their perfons and
manners, that they are PdmeraSy as the Brah-
mans call them, or outcaft HinduSy immemorially
feparated from the reft of the nation. It feems
agreed, that the fingular people, called Egyptians^
and, by corruption, GypJieSy pafled the Mediter-
ranean immediately from Egypt ; and their mot-
ley language, of which iVir. Grellmann ex-
hibits a copious vocabulary, contains fo many
Sanferit words, that their Itidian origin can

AND ISLANDERS OF ASIA. 17 1

hardly be doubted : the authenticity of that vo-
cabulary feems eftablifhed by a multitude of
Gypfy words, as angar, charcoal, cdjbth, wood,
pdr^ a bank, bhu^ earth, aiid a hundred more,
for which the colledior of them could find no
parallel in the vulgar diale£t of Hindujidn,
though we know them to be pure Sanjcrit
fcarce changed in a fingle letter. A very in-
genious friend, to whom this remarkable fad:
was imparted, fuggefted to me, that thofe very
words might have been taken from old Egyptian,
and that the Gypfies were Troglodytes from, the
rocks near Thebes, where a race of banditti ftill
refemble them in their habits and features ; but,
as we have no other evidence of fo ftrong an
affinity between the popular dialeds of old Egypt
and India, it feems more probable, that the
Gypfies, whom the Italians call* Zingdros, and
Zinganos, were no other than Zinganians, as
M. D’Anville alfo writes the word, who
might, irvfome piratical expedition, have landed
on the coaft of Arabia or Africa, whence they
might, have rambled to Egypt, and at length
have migrated, or been driven into Europe. To
the kindnefs of Mr. Malet I am alfo indebted
for an account of the Boras ; a remarkable race
of men inhabiting chiefly the cities of Gujarat,
who, though Mufelmans in religion, are Jeivs
in features, genius, and manners : they form in
VOL. I. o

172 ON THE BORDERERS, MOUNTAINEERS,

all places a diflindl fraternity, and are every
■where noted for addrefs in bargaining, for mi-
nute thrift, and conftant attention to lucre, but
profefs total ignorance of their own origin ;
though it feems probable, that they came firft
with their brethren the Afghans to the borders
of Jndia^ where they learned in time to prefer a
gainful and fecure occupation in populous towns
to perpetual wars and laborious exertions on the
mountains. As to the- Moplas^ in the weftern
parts of the Indian empire, I have feen their
books in Arahick, and am perfuaded, that, like
the people called Malays^ they defcended from
Arabian traders and mariners after the age of
Muhammed.

On the continent of India, between the river
Vipdfa, or Hyphajis^ to the weft, the mountains
of Tripura znA CdmarupaX-o the eaft, and Hima-
laya to the north, we find many races of wild
people with more or lefs of that priftine ferocity,
which induced their anceftors to fecede from the
civilized inhabitants of the plains and valleys ;
in the moft ancient Sanjcrit books they are
called Sacas, Cirdtas, Colas, Pulindas, Barbaras,
and are all known to Europeans, though not
all by their true names ; but many Hindu pil-
grims, who have travelled through their haunts,
have fully defcribed them to me ; and I have
found reafons for believing, that they fprang

A^TD ISLANDERS OF ASIA. 173

from the old Indian ftem, though fome of
them were foon intermixed with the firft ram-
blers from TjjLary, whofe language feoms to
have been the balls of that now fpoken by.
the Moguls.

We come back to the Indian illands, and
haften to thofe, which lie to the fouth-eaft of
Sildn^ or Taprobane', for Sildn itfelf, as we know
from the languages, letters, religion, and old.
monuments of its various inhabitants, w^as peo-.
pled beyond time of memory by the Hindu race,
and formerly, perhaps, extended much farther
to the well and to the fouth, fo as to include
Lancd, or the equinotflial point of the Indian
allronomers; nor can we reafonably doubt, that
the fame enterpriling family planted colonies in
the other illes of the fame ocean from the Ma-
layadwipas which take their name from the
mountain of Malaya, to the Moluccas, or Mal-
licds, and probably far beyond them. Captain
Forrest allured me, that he found the ille of
Bali (a great name in the hiftorical poems of
India ) chiefly peopled by Hindus, who worflrip-
ped the fame idols, which he had feen in this
province ; and that of Madbin d mull have been
fo denominated, like the well known territory
in the wellern peninfula, by" a nation, who un-
derftood Sanfcrit. We need not be furprized,
that M. D’Anville was unable to alfign a rea-

o 2

174 ON THE BORDERERS, MOUNTAINEERS,

fon, why the Jabadios^ or Tavadwipa^ of Pto-
lemy was rendered in the old La/w verfion the
ifle of Barley ; but we muft admire the inqui-
fitive fpirit and patient labour of the Greeks and
Romans, whom nothing obfervable feems to
have efcaped ; Tarta means l>arley in Sanfcrit ;
and, though that word, or its regular derivative,
be now applied folely to yava, yet the great
French geographer adduces very ftrong reafons
for believing, that the ancients applied it to Su-
matra. In whatever way the name of the lad
mentioned ifland may be written by Europeans,
it is clearly an Indian word, implying abundance
or excellence ; but we cannot help wondering,
that neither the natives of it, nor the bed in-
formed of our Pandits, know it by any fuch ap-
pellation; efpecially as it dill exhibits vifible
traces of a primeval connexion with India: from
the very accurate and intereding account of it
by a learned and ingenious member of our own
body, we difcover, without any recourfe to ety-
mological conjedture, that multitudes of pure
Sanfcrit words occur in the principal dialedls of
the Sumatrans ; that, among their laws, two
pofitive rules concerning and interejl ap-

pear to be taken vpord for word from the Indian
Icgiflators Na ked and Ha ri'ta ; and, what is
yet more obfervable, that the fydem of letters,
ufed by the people of Bejang and hampun, has

AND ISLANDERS OF ASIA. 175

the fame artificial order with the Devanagafi ;
but in every feries one letter is omitted, becaufe
it is never found in the languages of thofe
illanders. If Mr. Mars den has proved (as he
firmly believes, and as we, from our knowledge
of his accuracy, may fairly prefume) that clear
veftiges of one ancient language are difcernible
in all the infular dialcd:s of the fouthern feas
from Madagafciir to the Philippines and even to
the remoteft iflands lately difcovered, we may
infer from the fpecimens in his account of Su-
matra, that the parent of them all was no other
than the Sanfcrit; and with this obfervation,
having nothing. of confequence to add on the
ChineJ'e illes or on thofe of Japan^ I leave the
farthcft eaftern verge of this continent, and turn
to the countries, now under the government of
Cbina^ between the northern limits of India,
and the extenfive domain of thofe Tartars, who
are ftill independent.

That the people of Pdtyid or Tibet were Hin~
dus, who engrafted the herefies of Buddha on
their old mythological religion, we know from
the refearches of Cassiano, who long had re-
fided among them ; and whofe difquifitions on
their language and letters, their tenets and forms
of worlhip, are inferred by Gjorgi in his curious
but prolix compilation, which I have had the
patience to read from the firft to the laft of nine

‘1 76 ON THE BORDERERS, MOUNTAINEERS,

hundred rugged pages : their characters are ap-
parently Indian^ but their language has now the
difadvantage qF being written with more letters
than are ever pronounced ; for, although it was
anciently Sanfcrit and polyfyllabick, it feems at
prefent, from the influence of Cbinefe manners,
to confift of monofyllables, to form which, with
feme regard to grammatical derivation, it has
become neceflary to fupprefs in common dif-
courfe many letters, which we fee in their books ;
and thus we arc enabled to trace in their writing
a number of Sanfcrit words and phrafes, which
in their fpoken dialeCtare quite undiflinguifliable.
The two engravings in Giorgi’s book, from
fkctches by a Tihetian painter, exhibit a fyftcm
of Egyptian and Indian mythology ; and a com-
plete explanation of them would have done the
learned author more credit than his fanciful ety-
mologies, which are always ridiculous, and often
grofsly erroneous.

The Tartars having been wholly unlettered,
as they freely confefs, before their converfion to
the religion of Arabia, we cannot but fufpeCt,
that the natives of Eighur, Tanciit, and Khatdy
who had fyftems of letters and are even faid to
have cultivated liberal arts., were not of the Tar-
tarian, but of the Indian, family ; and I apply
the £une remark to the nation, whom we call
BarmaSy but who are known to the Pandits by

AND ISLANDERS OF ASIA. 171

the name of Brahmachinas^ and feem to have
been the Brachmani of Ptolemy: they were
probably rambling Hindus, who, dcfcending from
the northern parts of the eaftern peninfula, car-
ried with them the letters now ufed in Ava,
w'hich arc no more than a round Ndgar'i derived
from the fquare chara£Vers, in which the P/di, or
facred language ■ of Buddha’s priefts in that
country, was anciently written ; a language, by
the way, very nearly allied to the Sanjerii, if we
can depend on the tcllimony of M. De la
Loubrre ; who, though always an acute- ob-
ferver, and in general a faithful reporter, of fadts,
is charged by C4 RT‘Anius with having miflaken
the Banna for the Bali letters ; and when, on
his authority, I fpoke of the Bali writing to a
young chief of Aracan, who read with facility
the books of the Bunnas, he corrected me with
politenefs, and afi'ured me, that the I'dli lan-
guage was wiittcn by the priells in a much
older charadfer.

I.et us now return eaftward to the fartheft
AJiaiick dominions of Hajjia, and, rounding
them on the northeaft, pals diredtly to the Hy-
perboreans', who, from all that can be learned
of their old religion and manners, appear like
the MaJfagcUr, and foine other nations ufually
conlidered as Tartars, to have been really of the
Goibick, that is of the Hindu, race j for f coor

178 ON THE BORDERERS, MOUNTAINEERS,

fidently aflume, that the Gotbs and the Hindus
had originally the fame language, gave the fame
appellations to the ftars and planets, adored the
fame falfe deities, performed the fame bloody
facrifices, and profelTed the fame notions of re-
wards and punifhments after death. I would
not infift with M. B a illy, that the people of
Finland were Gotbs, merely becaufe they have
the word Jhip in their language ; while the reft
of it appears wholly diftin(ft from any of the
Gothick idioms : the publiftiers of the Lord’s
Prayer in many languages reprefent the Finnijb
and Lapponian as nearly alike, and the Hun~
garian as totally different from them ; but this
muft be an errour, if it be true, that a RuJJian
author has lately traced the Hungarian from its
primitive feat between the Cajpian and the
Euxine, as far as Lapland itfelf ; and, lince the
Huns were confeffedly Tartars, we may con-
clude, that all the northern languages, except
the Gotbick, had a Tartarian origin, like that
univerfally aferibed to the various branches of
Sclavonian.

On the Armetuan, which I never ftudied, be-
eaufe I could not hear of any original compofi-
tions in it, I can offer nothing decifive ; but am
convinced, from the beft information procurable
in Bengal, that its bafis was ancient Perfian of
the fame Indian ftock with the Zend, and that

AND ISLANI>ERS OF ASIA. 179

it has been gradually changed fmce the time,
when Armenia ceafed to be a province of Iran :
the letters, in which it now appears, are allowed
to be comparatively modern ; and, though the
learned editor of the tra£t by Carpanius on
the literature of Ava^ compares them with the
Pali characters, yet, if they be not, as I Ihould
rather imagine, derived from the Vahlavi^ they
are probably an invention of fome learned Ar-
mefiian in the middle of the fifth century. Mo-
ses of Khoren^ than whom no man Was more
able to elucidate the fubjeCt, has inferted in his
hiftorical work a difquifition on the language of
Armenia^ from .which we might colledt fome
curious information, if the prefent occafion re-
quired it j but to' all the races of men, who in-
habit the branches of Caucajus and the northern
limits of Pan, I apply the remark, before an<!»
nounced generally, that ferocious and hardy
tribes, who retire for the fake of liberty to
mountainous regions, and form by degrees a
feparate nation, muft alfo form in the end a fe-
parate language by agreeing on new words to
exprefs new ideas ; provided that the language,
which they carried with them, was not fixed by
writing and fufiiciently copious. * The Armenian
damfels are faid by Strabo to have facrificed in
the temple of the goddefs Anaitis, whom we
know, from other authorities, to be the Na hi'o,

i so ON TIJE BORDERERS, MOUNTAINEERS,

pr Venus, of the old Pvrjians; and it is for
many real'ons highly probable, that one and the
iame religion prevailed through the whole em-
pire of CVRUS.

Having travelled round the continent, and
among the iflands, of we come again to
the coaft of the Mediterranean ; and the prin-
cipal nations of antiquity, who firft demand our
attention, are the Greeks and Phrygians, who,
though differing fomewhat in manners, and per-
haps in dialedt, had an apparent affinity in re-
ligion as well as in language: the Dorian, Ionian,
and Eolian families having emigrated from
Europe, to which it is univerlally agreed that
they firfl paffed from Egypt, I can add nothing
to what has been advanced concerning them in
former difeourfes ; and, no written monuments
of old Phrygia being extant, I ihall only obferve,
on the authority of the Greeks, that the grand
objedl of myfterious worfhip in that country
was the Mother of the Gods, or Nature per-
fonified, as we fee her among the Indians in a
thoufand forms and under a thouliind names.
She was called in the Phrygian dialedt Ma',
and reprefented in a car drawn by lions, with a
drum in her hand, and a towered coronet on
her head : her myfteries (which leem to be
alluded to in the Mofaick law) are folemnized
at the autumnal equinox in thefe provinces.

AND ISLANDERS OF ASIA.

181

where fhe is named, in one of her charafters,
Ma', is adored, in all of them, as the great
Mother, is figured fitting on a lion^ and appears
in feme of her temples with a diadem or mitre
of turrets : a drum is called dindima both in
Sanferit and Phrygian ; and the title of Dindy-
mene feems rather derived from that word, than
from the name of a mountain. The Diana of
Ephefiis was manifettly the fame goddefs in the
charadfer of productive Nature; and the As-
TARTE of the Syridns and Pbeniciajis ' to v^hom
we now return ) was, I doubt not, the fame in
another for-m : I may on the whole afliire you,
that the learned works of SitLDEN and Jab-
LONSKijOnthe Gods of Syria and Egypt^ would
receive more illuftration from the little Sanferit
book, entitled Chandi^ than from all thefraginents
of orienta' mythology, that are difperfed in the
whole compafs of Grecian^ Roman, and Hi'brnu
literature. We are told, that the Fhcniciuns,
like the Hindus, adored the Sun, and aflbrted
water to be the firft of created things ; nor can
we doubt, that Syria, Samaria, and Phenice, or
the long ftrip of land on the fhore of the Me-
diterranean, were anciently peopled by a branch
of the Indian ftock, bpt were afterw'ards inhabit-
ed by that race, which for the prefent we call
Arabian : in all three the oldeft religion was the
Mffyrian, as it is called by Seloen, and the

182 ON THE BORDERERS, MOUNTAINEERS,

Samaritan letters appear to have been the fame
at firft with thofe of Pbenice j but the Syriack
language, of which ample remains are preferved,
and the Punick, of which we have a clear fpe-
cimen in Plautus and on monuments lately
brought to light, were indifputably of a Cbal’-
daick^ or Arabick, origin.

The feat of the firft Pbeniciam having extend-
ed to Idume, with which we began, we have now
completed the circuit of AJia ; but we muft not
pafs over in filence a moft extraordinary people,
who efcaped the attention, as Barrow obferves
more than once, of the diligent and inquifitive
Herodotus : I mean the people of yudea^
whofe language demonftrates their affinity with
the Arabs, but whofe manners, literature, and
hiftory are wonderfully diftinguiftied from the
reft of mankind. ' Barrow loads then) with the
fevere, but juft, epithets of malignant, unfocial,
obftinate, diftruftful, fordid, changeable, turbu-
lent j and deferibes them as furioufly zealous in
fuccouring their own countrymen, but impla-
cably hoftile to other nations ; yet, with all the
fottifti perverfenefs, the ftupid arrogance, and
the brutal atrocity of their character, they had
the peculiar metit, among all races of men under
heaven, of preferving a rational and pure fyftem
of devotion in the midft of wild polytheifm,
inhuman or obfeene rites, and a dark labyrinth

AND ISLANDERS OF ASIA.

185

of errours produced by ignorance and fupported
by interefted fraud. Theological inquiries are
no part of my prefent fubjedt ; but I cannot
refrain from adding, that the collection of tradls,
which we call from their excellence the Scrip-
tures, contain, independently of a divine origin,
more true fublimity, more exquifite beauty,
purer morality, more important hiilory, and
finer ftrains both of poetry and eloquence, than
could be collected within the fame compafe
from all other books, that were ever compofed
in any age or in any idiom. The two parts, of
which the Scriptures confift, are connected by a
chain of compofitions, which bear no refemblance
in form or ftyle to any that can be produced
from the ftores of* Greciim, Indian, Perficm, or
even Arabian, learning: the antiquity of thofe
compofitions no man doubts ; and the unftrain-
ed application of them to events long fubfequent
to their publication is a folid ground of belief^
that they were genuine predictions, and con-
fequently infpired ; but, if any thing be the
abfolute exclufive property of each individual,
it is his belief ; and, I hope, I fliould be one of
. the laft men living, who could harbour a thought
of obtruding my own belief on the free minds
of others. I mean only to affume, what, I truft,
will be readily conceded, that the firft Hebrew
lilftorian muit be entitled, merely as fuch, to an

184 ON THE BORDERERS, MOUNTAINEERS, &c.

equal degree of credit, in his account of all civil
tranfaflions, with any other hiftorian of an-
tiquity : how far that moft ancient writer con-
firms the refult of our inquiries into the ge-
nealogy of nations, I propofe to {how at our
next anniverfar^' meeting ; when, after an ap-
proach to demonftration, in the ttridl: method of
the old analyfis, I fhall refume the whole argu-
ment concifely and fynthetically ; and (hall then
have condenfed in feven difcourfes a mafs of
evidence, which, if brevity had pot been my
object, might have been expanded into feven
large volumes with no other trouble than that of
holding the pen ; but (to borrow a turn of ex-
preffion from one of our poets) “ for what I
“ have produced, I claim only your indulgence ;
^ it is for what I have fuppreflTed, that I am
“ entitled to yotir thanks.”

DISCOURSE THE NINTH.

f>N

THE OPJGIN AND FAMILIES OF NATIONS.

nCLlVESKO J 3 FEBRUARY, 1792,

BY

THE PRESIDENT.

You have attended, gentlemen, with fo much
indulgence to my dil'courfes on the five ^Jiatick
nations, and on the various tribes eftablilhed
along their fevcral borders or interfperfed over
their mountains, that 1 cannot but flatter myfelf
with an aiTurance of being heafd with equal at-
tention, while I trace to one centre the three
great families, from which thoie nations appear
to have proceeded, and then hazard a few con-
jedtures on the different courfes, which they
may be fuppofed to have taken toward the
countries, in which we find them fettled at the
dawn of all genuine hiftory.

Let us begin with a fliort review of the pro-
pofitions, to which \’^e have gradually been led,
and feparate fuch as are morally certain, from
fuch as are only probable : that the firft race of

m

ON THE ORIGIN

Perjians and Itidians, to whom we may add the
Romans and Greeks, the Goths, and the old
Egyptians or Ethiops, originally fpoke the fame.
language and profefled the fame po pular f aith, is
capable, in my humble opinion, of inconteftable
proof ; that the Jews and Arabs, the AJfyrians,
or fecond Perjian race, the people who fpoke
Syriack, and a numerous tribe of Alyjfinians,
ufed one primitive dial eft wholly diftinft from
the idiom juft mentioned, is, I believe, undif-
puted, and, I am fure, indifputable ; but that
the fettlers ip C^na and Jagan had a common
origin with the Hindus, is no more than highly
probable ; and, that all the Tartars, as they are
inaccurately called, were primarily of a third fe-
parate branch, totally differing from the two
others in language, manners, and features, may
indeed be plaufibiy conjeftured, but cannot, for
the reafons alledged in a former effay, be per-
fpicuoufly fhown, and for the prefent therefore
muft be merely affumed. Could thefe fafts bo
verified by the beft attainable evidence, it would
not, I prefume, be doubted, that the whole earth
w'as peopled by a variety of fhoots from the In-
dian, Arabian, and Tartarian branches, or by fuch
intermixtures of them, as, in a courfe of ages,
might naturally have happened.

Now I admit without hefitation the aphorifin
of LiNNjEUs, that “ in the beginning Gol>

AND FAMILIES OF NATIONS. 187

“ created one pair only of every living fpecieSj
“ which has a diverlity of fex but, fince that
incomparable naturalift argues principally from
the wonderful dilFufion of Vegetables^ and from
an hypothefis, that the water on this globe has
been continually fubfiding, I venture to produce
a (hotter and clofer argument in fiipport of his
dodlrine. That l^ature^ of which fimplicity ap-
pears a diftinguifhing attribute, does nothing in
vain, is a maxim in philofophy ; and againft
thofe, who deny maxims, we cannot difpute }
but it is vain and fuperfluous to do by many
means what may be done by fewer, and this is
another axiom received into courts of judicature
from the fchools of philofophers : \^}e mujl not, „
therefore, fays our great Newton, admit more
caufes of natural things, than thofe, xvhich are true,
and fufficiently account for natural ' phenomena ;}
but it is true, that one pair at leajl of every
living fpecies muft at hrft have been created ;
and that one human pair was fufficient for the
population of our globe in a period of no con-
liderable length (on the very moderate fup-
pofition of lawyers and political arithmeticians,
that every pair of anceftors left on an average
two children, and each of them two more), is
evident from the rapid increafe of numbers in
geometrical progreflion, ib well known to thofe,
who have ever taken the trouble to fum a feries

VOL. I. p

IS3

ON THE OllIGIN

of as many terms, as they fuppofe generations of
men in two or three thoufand years. It follows,
that the Author of Nature (for all nature pro-
claims its divine autKor) created but one pair of
our fpecies ; yet, had it not been (among other
reafons) for the devaftations, which hiftory has
recorded, of water and fire, wars, famine, and
peftilence, this earth would not now have had
room for its multiplied inhabitants. If the hu-
man race then be, as we may confidently aflume,
of one natural fpecies, they muft all have pro-
ceeded from one pair ; and if perfcft juftice be,
as it is moll indubitably, an eflential attribute of
GOD, that pair muft have been gifted with fuf*
ficient wifdom and ftrength to be virtuous, and,
as far as their nature admitted, happy, but in-
trufted with freedom of will to be vicious and
confequently degraded : whatever might be their
option, they muft people in time the region
where they firft were eftabliflied, and their nu-
merous defendants muft neceffarily feek new
countries, as inclination might prompt, or ac-
cident lead, them ; they would of courfe migrate
in feparate families and clans, which, forgetting
by degrees the language of their common pro-
g(Miitor, would form new dialeifts to convey new
ideas, both fimple and Complex ; natural afiec-
tion would unite them at firft, and a fenfe of
ciprocal utility, the great and only cement of

AND FAMILIES t>F NATIONS. 189

focial union in the abfence of publick honour
and juftice, for which in evil times it is a general
fubftitute, would combine them at length in com-
munities more or lefs regular; laws would be
propofed by a part of each community, but en-
adted by the whole ; and governments w'^oiild be
varioufly arranged for the happinefs or mifery of
the governed, according to their own virtue and
wifdom, or depravity and folly ; fo that, in lefs
than three thoufand years, the world would ex-
hibit the fame appearances, which we may ac-
tually obferve on it in the age of the great Ara^
bian impoftor.

On that part of it, to which our united re-
fearches are generally confined, we fee Jive races
of men peculiarly diftinguifhed, in the time of
Mu HAM MED, for their multitude and extent of
dominion ; but we have reduceii them to three^
becaufe we can difeover no more, that effentially
differ in language, religion, manners, and other
known charadterifticks : now thofe three races,
how varioufly foever they may at prefent be dif-
perfed and intermixed, muft (if the preceding
conclufions be juftly drawn) have migrated ori-
ginally from a central country, to find which is
the problem propofed for folution’. Suppofe it
folved; and give any atbitrary name to that
centre: let it, if you pleafe, be Iran. The three
primitive languages, therefore, mufi>at firft havljf

p 2

190

ON THE ORIGIN

been concentrated in Iran^ and there only in fa£t
we fee traces of them in the earlieft hiftorical
age j but, for the fake of greater precifion, con-
ceive the whole empire of Iran, with all its
mountains and valleys, plains and rivers, to be
every way infinitely diminiflied ; the firft wind-
ing courfes, therefore, of all the nations proceed-
ing from it by land, and nearly. at the fame time,
will be little right lines, but without interfec-
tions, becaufe thofe courfes could not have
thwarted and croffed one another : if then you
confider the feats of all the migrating nations as
points in a furrounding figure, you will perceive,
that the feveral rays, diverging from Iran, may
be drawn to them without any interfettion ; but
this will not happen, if you alfume as a centre
Jrabia, or Egypt ; India, Tartary, or China : it
follows, that Iriin, or Perfia (I contend for the
meaning, not the name), was the central coun-
try, which we fought. This mode of reafoning
I have adopted, not from any affeftation (as you
will ^o me the juftice to believe) of a fcientifick
diefion, but for the fake of concifenefs and va-
riety, and from a wifh to avoid repetitions ; the
fubftance of my argument having been detailed
in a different .form at the clofe of another dif-
courfe ; nor does the arg&ment in any form rife
to deraonftration, which the queftion by no means
Admits: it amounts, however, to fuch a proof,

AND FAMILIES OF NATIONS. 191

grounded on written evidence and credible tef-
timony, as all mankind hold fufficient for de-
cilions affedting property, freedom, and life.

Thus then have we proved, that the inhabit-
ants of and confequently, as it might be
proved, of the whole earth, fprang from three
branches of one ftem : and that thofe branches
have fhot into their prefent ftate of luxuriance
in a period comparatively Ihort, Is apparent from
a fact univerfally acknowledged, that we find no
certain monument, or even probable tradition,
of nations planted, empires and ftates raifed,
laws enadled, cities built, navigation improved,
commerce encouraged, arts invented, or letters
contrived, above. twelve or at moft fifteen or
fixteen centuries before the birth of Christ,
and from another fadt, which* cannot be con-
troverted, f hat feven hundred or a thoufand years
would have been fully adequate to the fuppofed
propagation, diffufion and eftablilhment of the
human race.

The moft ancient hiftory of that race, and
the oldeft compofition perhaps in the world, is
a work in Hebrew, which we may fuppofe at
firft, for the fake of our argument, to have no
higher authority than* any other work of equal
antiquity, that the refearches of the curious had
accidentally brought to light ': it is afcribed to
Musah ; for fo he writes his ownnamp, which.

192

ON THt ORIGIN

after the Greeks and Romans^ we have changed
into Moses ; and, though it was manifeftly his
objedl to give an hiftorical account of a fingle
family, he has introduced it with a fhort view
of the primitive world, and his introdudtion has
been divided, perhaps improperly, into eleven
chapters. After defcribing with awful fublimity
the creation of this univerfe, he aflerts, that one
pair of every animal fpecies was called from no-
thing into exiftence j that the human pair were
ftrong enough to be happy, but free to be mifer-
able j that, from delufion and temerity, they
difobeyed their fupreme benefadtor, whofe good-
nefs could not pardon them conliftently with
his juftice ; and that they received a punilhment
adequate to their difobedience, but foftened by
a myfterious .prQmife to be accompliflied in their
defendants. We cannot but believe, on the
fuppofition juft made of a hiftory uninfpired,
that thefe fadls were delivered by tradition from
the firft pair, and related by Moses in a figu-?
rative ftyle ; not in that fort of allegory, which
rhetoricians defcribe as a mere aflemblage of
metaphors, but in the fymbolical mode of writ-
ing adopted by eaftern fages, to embellifh and
dignify hiftorical truth ; a«nd, if this were a time
for fuch illuftrations, we might produce the fame
account of the creation and \hofall, exprefled by
fyrabols very nearly fimilar, from the Purdnas

AND FAMILIES OF NATIONS.

193

themfelves, and even from the FMa, which ap-
pears to ftand next in antiquity to the five books
of Moses.

The {ketch of antediluvian hiftory, in which
we find many dark paflages, is followed by the
narrative of a deluge, which deftroyed the whole
race of man, except four pairs ; an hiftorical fa£l
admitted as true by every nation, to whofe li-
terature we have accefs, and particularly by the
ancient Hindus, who have allotted an entire Pu-
rdm to the detail of that event, which they re-
late, as ufual, in fymbols or allegories. I concur
moft heartily with thofe, who infift, that, in pro-
portion as any faft mentioned in hiftory feems
repugnant to the courfe of nature, or, in one
word, miraculous’, the ftronger evidence is re-
quired to induce a rational belief of it ; but we
hear withqut incredulity, that cities have been
overwhelmed by eruptions from burning moun-
tains, territories laid wafte by hurricanes, and
whole iflands depopulated by earthquakes: if
then we look at the firmament fprinkled with
innumerable ftars ; if we conclude by a fair ana-
logy, that every ftar is a fun, attracting, like ours,
a fyftem of inhabited planets j and if our ardent
fancy, foaring hand in hand with* found reafon,
waft us beyond the vifible fphere into regions of
immenfity, difclofing other celeftial expanfes and
other fyftems of funs' and tyorlds on all fides

<•94 ON THE ORIGIN

without number or end, we cannot but confidef
the fubmerfion of our little fpheroi'd as an in-
finitely lefs event in^refpedt of the immeafure-
able univerfe, than the deftrudion of a city or
an ifle in rcfped of this habitable globe. Let a
general flood, however, be fuppofed improbable
in proportion to the magnitude of fo ruinous an
event, yet the concurrent evidences of it are
completely adequate to the fuppofed impro-
bability ; but, as we cannot here expatiate on
thofe proofs, we proceed to the fourth important
fad recorded in the Mofaick hiftory j I mean
the firft propagation and early difperfion of man-
kind in feparate families to feparate places of
refidence.

Three fons of the juft and virtuous man, whofe
lineage was preferved from the general inun-
dation, travelled, we are told, as they began to
multiply, in thr^e large divifions varioufly fub-
divided : the children of Ya'fet feem, from the
traces of Sklavonian names, and the mention of
their being enlarged^ to have fpread themfelves
far and wide, and to have produced the race,
which, for want of a corred appellation, we call
Tartarian ; the colonies, formed by the fons of
Ham and Sh'em, appear^ to have been nearly
fimultaneous ; and, among thofe of the latter
branch, we find fo many names inconteftably
preferved at this hour in Atabia, that we cannot

AND FAMILIES OF NATIONS.

195

hefitate in pronouncing them the fame people,
whom hitherto we have denominated Arabs i
while the former branch, the moft powerful and
adventurous of whom were the progeny of
Cush, Misr, and Rama (names remaining un-
changed in Sanfcrit, and highly revered by the
Hindus ), were, in all probability, the race, which
I call Indian, and to which we may now give
any other name, that may feem more proper
and comprehenfive.

The general introduction to the ’JewiJb hif-
tory clofes with a very concife and obfcure ac-
count of a prefumptuous and mad attempt, by a
particular colony, to build a fplendid city and
raife a fabrick of immenfe height, independently
of the divine aid,' and, it fhould feem, in defiance
of the divine power j a projeCt, which was baf-
fled by means appearing at firft view inadequate
to the purpofe, but ending in violent diffention
among the projectors, and in the ultimate fepa-
ration of them : this event alfo feems to be re-
corded by the ancient Hindus in two of their
Purdnas j and it will be proved, I truft, on fome
future occafion, that the lion burjling from a pillar
to dejlroy a blajpbeming giant, and the divarf
who beguiled and held in deriJionXhc magnificent
Beli, are one and the fame ftory related in a
fymbolical ftyle.

Now thefe primeval events are defcribed as

19 $

ON THE ORIGRT

having happened between the Oxus and Eu-
phrates, the mountains of Caucafus and the bor-
ders of India, that is, within the limits of Iran',
for, though moft of the Mafaick names have
been confiderably altered, yet numbers of them
remain unchanged : we ftill find Harrdn in Me-
Jopetamia, and travellers appear unanimous in
fixing the fite of ancient Babel.-

Thus, on the preceding fuppofition, that the
firft eleven chapters of the book, which it is
thought proper to call Genejis, are merely a pre-
face to the oldeft civil hiftory now extant, we
fee the truth of them confirmed by antecedent
reafoning, and by evidence in part highly pro-
bable, and in part certain ; but the connexion of
the Mojaick hiftory with that of the Gofpel by
a chain of fublime predidlions unqueftionably
ancient, and apparently fulfilled, muft jnduce us
to think the Hebrew narrative more than human
in its origin, and confequently true in every
fubftantial part of it, though poffibly expreffed
in figurative language ; as many learned and
pious men have believed, and as the moft pious
may believe without injury, and perhaps with
advantage, tathe caufe of revealed religion. If
Moses then wis endued with fupernatural know-
ledge, it is no longer probable only, but ab-
folutely certain, that the whole race of man pro-
ceeded from Irdn, as from a centre, whence they

AND FAMILIES OF NATIONS.

191

migrated at firft in three great colonies j and
that thofe three branches grew from a common
ftockj which had been miraculoufly preferved in
a general convulfion and inundation of this
globe.

Having arrived by a different path at the fame
conclufion with Mr. Bryant as to one of thofe
families, the mdft ingenious and enterprifing of
the three, but arrogant, cruel, and idolatrous,
which we both conclude to be various fhoots
from the Hamian or Amonian branch, I fhall
add but little to my former obfervations on his
profound and agreeable work, which I have
thrice perufed with increafed attention and plca-
fure, though not with perfect acquiefcence in
the other lefs important parts of his plaufible
fyftem. The fum of his argument _ feems re-
ducible to three heads. Firft ; “ if the deluge
really happened at the time recorded by
Moses, thofe nations, whofe monuments are
“ preferved or whofe writings are acceflibie,
“ muft have retained memorials of an event fo
ftupendous and comparatively fo recent ; but
“ in fa£t they have retained fuch memorials
this reafoning feems juft, and the fa^l is true be-
yond controverfy : Secondly ; “ thofe memorials
“ were expreffed by the race of Ham, before
“ the ufe of letters, in rude fculpture or paint-
“ ing, and moftly in fymbolical figures of the

19S

ON THE ORIGIN

** ark, the eight perfons concealed in it, and the
** birds, which firft were difmifled from it ; this
" fa&. is probable, but, I think, not fufficiently
afcertained.” Thirdly ; “ all ancient Mytho-
“ logy (except what was purely Sahian) had
“ its primary fource in thofe various fymbols
mifunderftood ; fo that ancient Mythology
** Hands now in the place of fymbolical fculptiire
“ or painting, and muft be explained on the
“ fame principles, on which we Ihould begin to
** decypher the originals, if they now exifted
this part of the fyftem is, in my opinion, carried
too far j nor can I perfuade myfelf (to give one
inftance out of many) that the beautiful allegory
of Cupid and Psyche had the remoteft allufion
to the deluge, or that Hymen fignified the mV,
which covered the patriarch and his family.
Thefe propofitions, however, are fupperted with
great ingenuity and folid erudition, but, unpro-
fitably for the argument, and unfortunately, per-
haps, for the fame of the work itfelf, recourfe is
had to etymological conjediure, than which no
mode of reafoning is in general weaker or more
delufive. He, who profefles to derive the words,
of any one language from thofe of another, muft
cxpofc himfelf to the danger of perpetual errours,
unlefs he be perfectly acquainted with both j yet
my refpedable friend, though eminently {killed
inf the idioms of Greece and Rome, has no fort

AND FAMILIES OF NATIONS. li)9

of acquaintance with, any ^Jiatick dialed* ex*
cept Hebrew; and he has confequently made
miliakes, which every learner of Arabick and
Verjian mull inftantly dete&. Amon^ fifty ra-
dical words (ma, tapb, and ram being included),
eighteen are purely of Arabian origin, tzvelve
merely Indian, and feventeen both Sanfcrit and
Arabick, but in.fenfcs totally different; while
two are Greek only, and one Egyptian, or bar-
barous : if it be urged, that thofe radicals (which
ought furely to have concluded, inllead of pre-
ceding, an analytical inquiry) are precious traces
of the primitive language, from which all others
were derived, or to which at leaft they were
fubfequent, I can only declare my belief, that
the language of Noah is loft irretrievably, and
affure you, that after a diligent fearch, I cannot
find a fingle word ufed in comAori by the Ara-~
bian, Indian, and Tartar families, before the in-
termixture of dialedls occafioned by Mohammedan
conquefts. There are, indeed, very obvious
traces of the Hamian language, and fome hun-
dreds of words might be produced, which were
formerly ufed promifcuoully by moft nations of
^hat race ; but I beg leave, as a philologer, to
enter my proteft againft conjectural etymology
in hiftorical refearches, and. principally againft
the licentioufnefs of etymologifts in tranfpofing
and inferring letters, in fubftituting at pleafure

206

ON THE ORIGIN

any confonant for another of the fame order, and
in totally difregarding the vowels : for fuch per-
mutations few radical words would be more con-
venient than Cus or Cush, fince, dentals being
changed for dentals, and palatials for palatials,
it inftantly becomes coot, goofe, and, by tranfpo-
{ition, duck, all water-birds, and evidently fym-*
bolical ; it next is the^oa^ worihipped in Egypt,
and, by a metathefis, the dog adored as an em-
blem of Sirius, or, more obvioufly, a cat, not
the domeftick animal, but a fort of fhip, and,
the Catos, or great fea-fifli, of the Dorians. It
will hardly be imagined, that I mean by this
irony to infult an author, whom I refpeft and
efteem j but no confideration Ihould induce me
to affift by my filence in the diffulion of errour ;
and I contend, that almoft any word or nation
might be derived from any other, if fuch licences,
as I am oppofing, were permitted in etymolo-
gical hiftories : when we find, indeed, the fame
words, letter for letter, and in a /enfe precifely
Are iame, in different languages, we can fcarce
hefitate in allowing them a common origin j and,
not to depart from the example before us, when
we fee Cush or Cus (for the Sanferit namfr
alfo is varioufly pronounced) among the fons of
Brahma', that is, among ihe progenitors of the
Rnd at the head of an ancient pedigree
prfffirved in the Rd/ndyan ; when we meet with

AND FAMILIES OF NATIONS. 20i

his name again in the family of Ra'ma ; when
we know, that the name is veneratwi in the
higheft degree, and given to a facred grafs, dc-
feribed as a Poa by KofcNiG, which is ufed
with a thoufand ceremonies in the oblations to
fire, ordained by Menu to form the facrificial
zone of the Brahmans^ and folemnly declared in
the Veda, to have fprung up foon after the de-
luge, whence the Paurdnicks conlider it as the
brijlly hair of the boar which Jupported the globe ;
when we add, that one of the feven dzvipas, or
great peninfulas of this earth, has the fame ap-
pellation, we can hardly doubt that the CusK
of Moses and Va'lmic was the fame perfonage
and an anceftor of the Indian race.

From the. teftknonies adduced in the fix laft
annual difeourfes, and from the additional proofs
laid before you, or rather opened, on the prefent
occafion. It feems to follow, that the only human
family after the flood eftablifhed themfelves in
the northern parts of Iran ; that, as they mull
tiplied, they were divided into three diftin£t
branches, each retaining little at firft, and lofing
the whole by degrees, of their common primary
language, but agreeing feverally on new expref-
fitms for new ideas ; that the branch of Ya'fet
was enlarged in many feathered fhoots over the
north of Europe and Ajia, difiUfing themfelves
as far as the wellern and eafliern feas, and, at

203

ON THE ORIGIN

length in the infancy of navigation, beyond
them both : that they cultivated no liberal arts,
and had no ufe of letters, but formed a variety
of dialefts, as their tribes were varioufly rami-
fied ; that, fecondly, the children of Ham, who
founded in Iran itfelf the monarchy of the firft
Chaldeans^ invented letters, obferved and named
the luminaries of the firmament, calculated the
known Indian period oi four hundred and thirty-
two thoufand years, or an hundred and twenty re-
petitions of the faros, and contrived the old fyftem
of Mythology, partly allegorical, and partly
grounded on idolatrous veneration for their fages
and lawgivers i that they were difperfed at various
intervals and in various colonies over land and
ocean; that the tribes of Misr, Cush^ and Rama
fettled in Africk and India ; while fome of them,
having improved the art of failing, palfed from
Egypt, Vhenice, and Phrygia, into 'Italy and
Greece, which they found thinly peopled by for-
mer emigrants, of whom they fupplanted fome
tribes, and united themfelves with others ; whilft
a fwarm from the fame hive moved by a north-
erly courfe into Scandinavia, and another, by
the head of the Oxus, and through the palTes o|
Imaiis, into Cafhghar and Eighur, Khatd and
Kholeti, as far as the territories of Chin and Tan-
cut, ■vv:bece letters have been ufed and arts im-
mcaiorially cultivated ; nor is it unreafonable

AND FAMH.es of nations. 20»

to believe, that fome of them found their way
from the eaftern ifles into Mexico and Perw,
where traces were difcovered of rude literature
and Mythology analogous to thofe of Egypt and
India that, thirdly, the old Chaldean empire
being overthrown by the JJfyrians under Cayu'-
MERS, other migrations took place, efpecially
into India, while the reft of Shem’s progeny,
fome of whom had before fettled on the Red Sea,
peopled the whole Arabian peninfula, prefling
clofe on the nations of Syria and Pbenice ; that,
laftly, from all the three families were detached
many bold adventurers of an ardent fpirit and
a roving difpofition, who difdained fubordination
and wandered in feparate clans, till they fettled
in diftant ifles or in deferts and mountainous
regions ; that, on the whole, fome colonies might
have migrated before the death of their venerable
progenitor, but that ftates and empires could
fcarce have aflumed a regular form, till fifteen
or fixt^n • hundred years before the Chrijiian
epoch, and that, for the firft thoufand years of
that period, we have no hiftory unmixed with
fable, except that of the turbulent and variable^
^t eminently diftiriguiflied, nation defcended
from Abraham.

My defign, gentlenien, of tracing the origin
and progrefs of the five principal nations, who
have peopled AJia, and of whom there were

VOL. I.

204 6n th£ origiI^,

confiderable remains in their feveral countries at
the time of Muhammed’s hirth, is now ac-
compliihed ; fuccindily, from the nature of thefe
eflays ; imperfedly, from the darknefs of the
fubjedl and fcantinefs of my materials, but clear-
ly and comprehenfively enough to form a balls
for fubfequent refearches : yhu have feen, as di-
ftindlly as I am able to Ihow, who thofe nations
originally were, whence and when they moved
toward their final ftations ; and, in my future
annual difcourfes, I propofe to enlarge on the
particular advantages to our country and to
mankind, which may refult from our fedulous
and united inquiries into the, hiftory, fcienct,
and arts, of thefe AJiatick regions, efpecially of
the Britijb dominions in India, which we may
confider as the centre (not of the human race,
but) of our common exertions to promote its
true interefts j and we lhall concur, I truft, in
opinion, that the race of man, to advance whole
manly happinefs is our duty and will of courfe
be our endeavour, cannot long be happy with-
out virtue, nor actively virtuous without free-
dom, nor fecurely, free without rational know-
ledge.

tHE TfiNtri

ANNIVERSARY DISCDURSE,

DELIVERED 28 FEBRUARY, 179S.

BT

THE PRESIDENT.

ON ASIATICK HISTORY. CIVIL AND NATURAL.

Before oUr entrance, gentlemen, into the
difquifition, promifed at the clofe of my ninth
annual difcourfe, on the particular advantages^
which may be derived from our concurrent re-
fcarches in rljia., it feems nccelTijiry. to iix with
precillon the fenfe, in which we mean to fpeak
of advantage or utility: now, as \Ve have de-
fcribed the five AJiatick regions on their largeft
fcale, and have expanded our conceptions in
proportion to the magnitude of that Wide field,
we ftiould ufe thofe words, which comprehend
the fruit of all our inquiries, in their moft ex-
■te4five acceptation ; including not only the folid
tonveniences and comfprts of focial life, but its
elegances and innocent pleafiires, and even the
gratification of a natural and laudable curiolity ;
for, though labour be clearly ihe lot of man in

206

ON ASIATICK HISTORY,

this world, yet, in the midft of his moll adive
exertions, he cannot but feel the fubftantial be-
nefit of every libesal amufement, which may lull
his palfions to reft, and afford him a fort of re-
pole without the pain of total inadion, ^nd the
real ufefulftefs of every purfuit, wlaich may en-
large and diverfify his ideas, without interfering
with the principal objeds of his civil ftation or
economical duties; nor Ihould we wholly ex-
clude even the trivial and worldly fenfe of utility,
which too many confider as merely fynonymous
with lucre, but lliould reckon among ufeful ob-
jeds thofe pradical, and by no means illiberal,
arts, which may eventually conduce both to
national and to private emolument. With a
view then to advantages thus explained, let us
examine every point in the whole circle of arts
and fciences, according to the received order of
their dependence on the faculties of the mind,
their mutual connexion, and the different fub-
jeds, kwith which they are converfant ; our in-
quiries indeed, of which Nature and Man are
the primary objeds, mull of courfe be chiefly
Hijlorical ; but, fince we propofe to invelligate
the adtions of the feveral yJjiatick nations, too-
ther with thdir refpedive progrefs in Jcience and
art, we may arrange our invelligations under
thei^me three heads, to which our European
JMaai^s have iogenioully reduced all t!;e branches

CIVIL AND NATURAL.

207

of human knowledge ; and my prefent addreis
to the fociety fliall be confined to hiftory, civil
and natural, or the obfervation and remem-
brance of mere faSis, independently of ratiocina-
tion, which belongs to philofophy, or of imita-
tions and JubJiitutions, which are the province
of art.

Were a fuperior created intelligence to deli-
neate a map of general knowledge (exclufively
of that fublime and ftupendous theology, which
himfelf could only hope humbly to know by an
infinite approximation) he would probably be-
gin by tracing with Newton the fyftem of
the univerfe, in which he would aflign the true
place to our little globe j and, having enumerat-
ed its various inhabitants, contents, and pro^
duftions, would proceed to man in his natural
ftation among animals, exhibiting a detail of all
the knowledge attained or attainable by the
human race; and thus obferving, perhaps, the
fame order, in which he had before defcribed
other beings in other inhabited worlds: buti
though Bacon feems to have had a fimilar rea-
fon for placing the hiftory of Nature before that
•«t' Man, or the whole before one of its parts,
yet, confiftently with our chief objeft already
mentioned, we may properly begin with the
civil bijlory of the five AJiatick nations, which
necelTariiy coinprife« their Geography', pr a d&

SM ON ASIATICK HISTORY,

fcription of the places^ where they have adrec],
and their aftronomy, which mav erable us to
fix with fome accuracy the time of thtir adions :
we fhall thence be led to the hifiory of fuch
other animals, of fuch minerals, and of fuch
vegetables, as they may be fuppofed to havp
found in their feveral migrations and fettlements,
and Ihall end with the ufes to which they have
.applied? or may apply, the rich aflemblage of
natural fubftances.

I. In the firft place, we cannot furely deem
it ah inconfiderable advantage, that all our hif-
torical refcarches have confirmed the Mofaick
accounts of the primitive world j and our tefti-
mony on that fubjed ought to have the greater
weight, becaufe, if the refult of our obfervations
had been totally different, we fliould nevertheleff
have publifhed them, not indeed .with equal
pleafure, but with equal confidence ; for. Truth
is mighty, and, whatever be its confequences,
mujl always prevail : but, independently of our
intercft in corroborating the multiplied evidences
of revealed religion, we could fcarce gratify our
minds with a more ufeful and rational enter-
tainment, than the contempiation of thofe woiu;.
derfpl revolutions in kin^dom^ and ftates, which
have happened within little more than four
thousand years ; revolutions, almoft as fully de-
pBonftxatiye of m ^>ruling Providence, as thq

CIVIL AND NATURAL.

208

ftrufture of the univerfe and the final caufes,
which are difcernible in its whole extent and
even in its minuteft partes. Figure to your
imaginations a moving picture of that eventful
period, or rather a fucceffion of crouded fcenes
rapidly changed. Three families migrate in
difierent courfes from one region, and, in about
four centuries, eftablifli very diftant governments
and various modes of fociety : Egyptians, In-
dians, Goths, Pbenicians, Celts, Greeks, Latians,
Cbinefe, Peruvians, Mexicans, all fprung from
the fame immediate ftem, appear to ftart nearly
at one time, and occupy at length thofe countries,
to which they have given, or from which they
have derived, their names : in twelve or thir-
teen hundred years more the Greeks overrun
the land of their forefathers, invade India, con-,
quer Egypt, arid aim at univerfal dominion;
but the Romans appropriate to themfelves the
whole empire of Greece, and carry their arms
into Britain, of which they fpeak with haughty,
contempt: the Goths, in the fulnefs of time,
break to pieces the unwieldly Colojfus of Roman
power, and feize on the whole of Britain, ex-
.cept its wild mountains; but even thofe wilds
become fubjedt to other invaders of the lame.
Gotbick lineage: during all thefe tranfa£tions«
the Arabs polTefs both coalls of the Red 3ea,
fiifidue the old fea( of their firft progenitors, and

210 ON ASIATICK HISTORY,

extend their conquefts on one fide, through
Africkt into Europe itfelf ; on another, beyond
the borders of India^. part of which they annex
to their flourifliing empire : in the fame interval
the Tartars^ widely diffufed over the reft of the
globe, fwarm in the north-eaft, whence they
rufh to complete the redudlion of Constan-
tine’s beautiful domains, to fubjugate China,
to raife in thefe Indian realms a dynafty fplendid
and powerful, and to ravage, like the two other
families, the devoted regions of Iran: by this
time' the Mexicans and Peruvians, with man)r
races of adventurers varioufly intermixed, have
peopled the continent and ifles of America,
which the Spaniards, having reftored their old
government in Etirope, difcover and in part
overcome : but a colony from Britain, of which
Cicero ignorantly declared, that it contained
nothing valuable, obtain the pofleffion, and finally
the fovereign dominion, of extenfive American
diftrifts ; whilft other Britijh fubje£ts acquire a
fubordinate empire in the fineft provinces of In-
dia, which the vi<ftorious troops of Alexander
were unwilling to attack. This outline of hu-
man tranfaflions, as far as it includes the limits-
of Afia, we can only hope to fill up, to ftrength-
cn, and to colour, by the help of AJiatick litera-
ture} for in hiftory, as in law, we mull not
fi^low dreams, when we may inveftigate foun»

aVIL AND NATURAL. «tl

t^s nof - admit any fecondary proof, whera
primary evidence is attainable: I ihuuld, ne-
verthelefs, make a bad return for yoiM* indulgent
attention, were I to repeat a dry lift of all the
Mufelman hiftorian?, whofe works are prefervad
in Arabickf Pcrjian, and rurkijb^ or expatiate
on the hiftories and medals oi China axiA yapant
which may in time be acceftible to members of
our Society, and from which alone we can ex-
pert information concerning the ancient ftate of
the Tartars ; but on the hiftory of India, which
we naturally confider as the centre of our en-
quiries, it may not be fuperfiuous to pi6fent you
with a few particular obfervations.

Our knowledge of civil AJiatick hiftory (I
always except that of the Hebrews) exhibits a
Ihort evening twilight in the venerable intro-
duction tc\ the firft book of Moses, followed by
a gloomy night, in which different watches are
faintly difcernible, and at length we f«e a dawn
fucceeded by a funrife more or lefs early accord-
ing to the diverfity of regions. That ao Hindu
nation, but the Cajhmirians, have left us regular
hiftories in their ancient language, we muft ever
lament ; but from Sanfcrit literature, which our
country has the honour of having unveiled, we
may ftill colleCt fome rays of hiftorical truth,
though time and a feries of revolutions have
obicured that light which we might reafonably

tti ON. ASIATICKTklSTORy,

bave expeded from fo diligent and ingenious
peopW. The numerous Purdnas and Itibdfas,
or poems 'mythological and heroick, are com-
pletely in our power ; and from them we may
recover fome disfigured, but valuable, pidlures
of ancient manners and governments ; while the
popular tales of tbe Hindus, in profe and in verfe,
contain fragments of hiftory ; and even in their
dramas we may find as many real charadlers and
events, as a future age might find in our own
plays, if all hiftories of England were, like thofe
of India, to be irrecoverably loft : for example,
a moft Beautiful poem by So'made'va, com-
prifing a very long chain of .inftrudfive and
agreeable glories, begins with the famed revo-
lution at Pdtaliputra by the murder of King
Nan DA, with his eight fons, and the ufurpation
of Chandragupta ; and the fame ^evolution
is the fubjedt of a tragedy in Sanjcrit, entitled
the Coronation of Chandra, the abbreviated
name of that able and adventurous ufurper.
From thefe, once concealed but now acceffible,
compofitions, we are enabled to exhibit a more
accurate Iketch of old Indian hiftory than the
world has yet. feen, efpeclally with the aid o^
well-atteftcd obfervations on the places of the
colures. It is now clearly proved, that the firft
Furdna contains an account of the deluge, be-
tween which and the Mohammedan conquefts

CIVIL AND NATURAL.

tHe hiftory of genuine Hindu government muft
of courfs be comprehended j but we know from
an arrangement of the feafons in the aftronomical
work of Para'sara, that the war of the Pa'n-
DAVAS could not have happened earlier than
the clofe of the twelfth century before Christ,
and Seleucus muft, therefore, have reigned
about nine centuries after that war: now the
age of Vicrama'ditya is given; and, if we
can fix on an Indian prince, contemporary with
Seleucus, we fliall have three given points in
the line of time between Rama, or the firft
Indian colony, and Chandrae (j A, the laft
Hindu monarch, who reigned in Bebdri fo that
only eight hundred or a thoufand years will re-
main almoft wholly dark ; and they muft have
been employed in railing empires or ftates, in
framing laws, in improving languages and arts,
and in obferving the apparent motions of the
celeftial bodies. A Sanfcrit hiftory of the ce-
lebrated Vicrama'ditya was infpedfed at Ba-
nares by a Bandit^ who would not have de-
ceived me, and could not himfelf have been de-
ceived ; but the owner of the book is dead and
his family difperfed; nor have my friends in
that city been able, with all their exertions, to
procure a copy of it i as to the Mogul conquefts,
yrith which modern Indian hiftory begins, we
^ye ample accounts of them in Ferfian, ftom

214 ON ASIATICK HISTORY,

Ali of Ttzd and the tranflations of Turkijb
books compofed even by fomc of the conquerors,
to Ghula'm Husain, whom many of us per-
fonally know, and whofe impartiality defcrves
the higheft applaufe, though his unrewarded
merit will give no encouragement to other con-
temporary hiftorians, who, to ufe his own phrafe
in a letter to myfelf, may, like him, confider plain
truth as the beauty of hijiorical compojition. From
all thefe materials, and from thefe alone, a per-
fect hiftory of India (if a mere compilation,
however elegant, could deferve fuch a title)
might be colledted by any ftudious man, who
had a competent knowledge of Smjcrit^ Perfian^
and Arabick ; but, even in the work of a writer
lb qualified, we could only give abfolute cre-
dence to the general outline ; for, while the ab-
ftradt feimees are all truth, and the fine arts all
fidion, we cannot but own, that, in the detaik
of bijlory^ truth and fidion are fo blended as to
be fcarce diftinguilhable.

The pradical ufe of hiftory, in affording par-
ticular examples of civil and military wifdom,
has been greatly exaggerated ; but principles of
adion may certainly be colleded from it j and
even the narrative of wars and revolutions may
ferve as a leflbn to nation^ and an admonition
to fovefeigns : a defire, indeed, of knowing part
eveits, while the future cannot be known, and

. CIVIL AND NATURAL.

a view o£ the prrfent gives often more pain than
delight, feems natural to the human mind ; and
a happy propenfity would it be, if every reader
of hiftory would open his eyes to foipe very
important corollaries, which flow from the whole
extent of it. Fie could not but remark the
conftant effe£t of defpotijhi in benumbing and
debafing all thole faculties, which diftinguilh
men from the herd, that grazes ; and to that
caufe he would impute .the decided inferiority of
raoft j^fiatick nations, ancient and modern, to
thofe in Europe^ who are bleft with happier
governments ; he would fee the Arabs rifing to
glory, while they adhered to the free maxims
of their bold anceftors, and finking to mifery
from the moment, when thofe maxims were
abandoned. On the other hand he would ob-
ferve with regret, that fuch republican govern-
ments as tend to produce virtue and happinefs,
cannot in their nature be permanent, but are
generally fucceeded by Oligarchies^ which no
good man would wilh to be durable. Fie would
then, like the king of Lydia, remember Solon,
the wifeft, braveft, and moft accomplilhed of
men, who alferts, in four nervous lines, that,
as bail and Jmw, which mar the labours, of
“ hu{bandmen,^rocedi/ /r<wi elevated clouds, and,
** as the deftru^ive thunderbolt follows the bril-
“ liant fiajb, thus is a free Jlate ruined by men

218 ASlATtCK HlSTORt,

“ exalted in power and (plendid in wealth, whiU
the people, from grofs ignorance, chufe rather'
“ to become the Jlaves of one tyrant, that they
may efcape from the domination of many,
** than to preferve themfelves from tyranny of
** any kind by their union and their virtue*.”
Since, therefore, no unmixed form of govern-
ment could both deferve permanence and enjoy
it, and fince changes even from the worft to
the beft, are always attended with much tem-
porary mifchief, he would fix on our Britijb con-*
ftitution (I mean our puhlick lazu, not-the aftual
ft ate of things in any given period) as the beft
form ever eftabliftied, though we can only make
diftant approaches to its theoretical perfedtion.
In thefe Indian territories, which' providence
has thrown into the arms of Britain for their
protection and welfare, the religion,^ manners,
and laws of the natives preclude even the idea
of political freedom; but their hiftories may
poffibly fuggeft hints for their profperity, while
our country derives eflential benefit from the
diligence of a placid and fubmiffive people, who
multiply with fuch increafe, even after the ra-
vages of famine, that, in one colleCtorfhip out
of twenty‘four,'zn6. that by no means the largeft
or beft cultivated (I mean’ Crtjhna-nagar) there
have lately been found, by an aCtual enu-
meration, a million and three hundred thoufand

CIVIL AND NATURAL.

SIT

native inhabitants ; whence it Ihould that
in all India there cannot now be fewer than
thirty millions of black Britijh fubjefts.

Let us proceed to geography and chronology,
without which hiftory would be no certain guide,
but would refemble a kindled vapour without
either a fettled place or a fteady light. For a
reafon before intimated I fhall not name the
various cofmographical books, which are extant
in Arabick and Perjian, nor give an account of
thofe, which the T'urks have beautifully printed
in their own improved language, but fhall ex-
patiate a little on the geography and aftronomy
of Indiu'y having firft obferved generally, that all
the Afiaiick nations muft be far better acquainted
with their feveral countries than mere European
fcholars and travellers; that, confequently, we
muft learn their geography trom their own
writings ; and that, by collating many copies of
the fame work, we may correct the blunders of
tranferibers in tables, names, and d^feriptions.

Geography, aftronomy, and chronology have,
in this part of Afia, fhared the fate of authcntick
hiftory, and, like that, have been fo mafked and
bedecked in the fantaftick robes of mythology
and metaphor, that the real fyftem of Indiati
philofophers and ma'thematicians can fcarce be
diftinguilhed : an accurate knowledge of San-
Jin'll and a confidential intercourfe with learned

81i qilvASIAllCK HISTORY,

Brdbmem, are the Qnly means of feparatmg truth
from fable; and we may expe<3; the moil im-
portant difcoveries from two of our members ;
concerning whom it may be fafely aiferted, that,
if our fociety ihould have produced no other
advantage than the invitation given to them for
the publick difplay of their talents, we Ihould
have a claim to the thanks of pur country and
of all Europe. Lieutenant Wilford has ex-
hibited an intereiling fpecimen of the geo-
graphical knowledge deducible from the Fu~
rdnaSf and will in time prefent you with fo
complete a treatife on the ancient world known
to the Hindus^ that the light acquired by the
Greeks will appear but a glimmering in com-
parifon of that, which He will diffufe; while
Mr. Davis, who has given us a. diftimfl idea
of Indian computations and cycles, and afcertain-
ed the place of the colures at a time of great
importance in hillory, will hereafter difclofe
the fyllema of Hindii aftronomers from Naked
and Para'sar toMEVA, Vara'hamihir, and
Bha SCAR, and will foon, I truft, lay before you
a perfefl delineation of all the Indian afterifm^
in both hemifpheres, where you will perceive
fo Arong a general refembhince to the conAeW
latioos q{ the Greeks^ as ‘to prove that the two
were originally one and the fame, yet
a diverAty in parts, as to ihow incea-

CIVIL AND NATURAL. 219

teftably, that neither fyftem was copied from the
other ; whence it will follow, that they rnuji have
had fome common fource.

The jurifprtidence of the Hindus and Arabs
being the field, which I have chofen for my
peculiar toil, you cannot exped, that t Ihould
greatly enlarge your collection of hiftorical
knowledge ; but I may be able to offer you
fome occafional tribute, and I cannot help men-
tioning a difcovery, which accident threw in my
way; though my proofs muft be referved for
an elfay, which I have deftined for the fourth
volume of your TranfaCtions. To fix the fitua-
tion of that Palibotbra (for there may have been
feveral of the name)i which was vifited and de-
feribed by Megasthenes had always appeared
a very difficult problem ; for, though it could
not have been Praydga, where* no ancient me-
tropolis evCr flood, nor Cdnyacubja, which has
no epithet at all refembling the word ufed by
the Greeks, nor Gaur, otherwife called haejb-
manavaii, which all know to be a town com-
paratively modern, yet we could not confidently
decide that it was Paialiputra, though names
and mod circumflances yearly correfpond, be-
caufe that renowned capital extended from the
confluence of the Sone and the Ganges to the
feite of Patna, while Palibotbra flood at the
jundion of the Ganges and EraftHoboas^ which

VOL. I. R

120

ON ASIATICK HISTORY,

the accurate M. D’Anvillk had pronounced to
be the Tamuna : but this only difficulty was re-
moved, when I found in a claffical Sanfcrit
book, near two thotifand years old, that Hira-
nyabdbu^ or golden-armed y which the Greeks
changed into Erannohoas, or the river with a
lovely murmir, was in fait another name for the
Som itfelf, though Megasthenes, from igno-
rance or inattention, has named them feparately.
This difcovery led to another of greater moment j
for Chandragupta, who, from a military
adventurer, became, like Sandracottus, the
fovereign of upper Hindujldn, actually fixed the
feat of his empire at Patalipntra, where he re-
ceived ambafladors from foreign princes, and
was no other than that very Sanpracottws,
who concluded a treaty with Seleucus Ni-
CATOR j fo that we have folved another problem,
to which we before alluded, and may in round
numbers confiderthe twelve and three hundredth
years before Christ as two certain epochs be-
tween Rama, who conquered Sildn a few cen-
turies after the flood, and Vicrama'ditya,
who died at Ujjayint fifty-feven years before the
beginning of our era.

II. Since thefe difeuffions would lead us too
far, I proceed to the hiftory of Nature diftin-
gttiihed, for our prefent purpofe, from that of
Man ; and divided into that of other animals.

CIVIL AND NATURAL. 221

who inhabit this globe, of the mineral fubftances,
which it contains, and of the vegetables^ which
fo luxuriantly and fo beautifully adorn it.

I . Could the figure, inftmdis, and qualities of
birds, beafts, infe£ls, reptiles, and fifti be afcer-
tained, either on the plan of Buffon, or on that
of Linnjeus, without giving pain to the objcdts
of our examination, few ftudies would afford us
more folid inftrudlion or more exquifite delight ;
but I never could learn by what right, nor con-
ceive with what feelings, a naturalift can oc-
cafion the mifery of an innocent bird and leave
its young, perhaps, to perifh in a cold neft, be-
caufe it has gay, plumage and has never been
accurately delineated, or deprive even a butterfly
of its natural enjoyments, becaufe it has the mis-
fortune to be rare or beautiful j nor (hall I ever
forget the couplet of Firdausi, for which Sadi,
who cites it with applaufe, pours bleflings on
his departed fpiiit : ‘

Ah! spare yon emmet, rich in hoarded grain:

He lives with pleasure, and he dies with pain.

This may be only a confelfion of weaknefs, and
it certainly is not meant as a boafl of peculiar
fenfibility j but, whatever name may be given to
my opinion, it has fuch an effedt on my con-
duct, that 1 never would fuffer the Cdcila^ whofe
wild native woodmtes announce the approach of

R 2 • ■

222

ON ASIATICK HISTORY,

fpring, to be caught in my garden for the fake
of cc^mparing it with Buffon’s defcription }
though I have often examined the domeftick and
engaging Mayaiih^ which bids us good morrow at
our windows^ and expedls, as its reward, little
more than fecurity : even when a fine young
Manis or Pangolin was brought me, againft my
wilh, from the mountains, 1 folicited his reftora-
tion to his beloved rocks, becaufe I found it
Impoflible to preferve him in comfort at a dif-
tance from them. There are feveral treatifes on
aninials in Arabich^ and very particular accounts
of them in Cbinefe with elegant outlines of their
external appearance ; but I have met with no-
thing valuable concerning them in Perfian, ex-
cept what may be gleaned from the medical dic-
tionaries } nor have 1 yet feen a book in San-
ferit, that e’xpJefsly treats of them : on the
whole, though rare animals may be found in all
Afia^ yet I can only recommend an examination
of them with this condition, that they be left,
as much as pofilble, in a ftate of natural freedom,
or made as happy as polllble, if it be necefiary
to keep them confined.

, a. Thq hiftory of minerals, to which no fuch
obje^Hon can be made, is extremely fimple and
eafy» if we merely confrder their exterior look
stnd configuration, and their vifible texture ; but
the wxalyfiis of their internal properties belongs

CIVIL AND NATURAL

223

particularly to the fublime refearches of C4hy-
millry, on which we may hope to find ufeful dif-
quifitions in Sanferit^ fince the old Hindus un-
queftionably applied thcmfelves to that enchant-
ing ftudy ; and even from their treatifes on al-
chymy we may poflibly collect the refults of
admal experiment, as their ancient aftrological
works have preferved many valuable fadts re-
lating to the Indian fphere and the preceffion of
the equinox : both in Perjian and Sanferit there
are books on metals and minerals, particularly
on gems^ which the Hindu philofophers confi-
dered (with an exception of the diamond) as
varieties of one cryftalline fubftance cither fimple
or compound : but we muft not expedl from the
chymifts of jdfia thofe beautiful examples of
analyfis which have but lately been difplayed in
the laboratories of Europe.

3. We now come to Botany, the lovelieft and
moft copious divifion in the hiftor)'- of nature ;
and, all difputes on the comparative merit of
fyftems being at length, I hope, condemned to
one perpetual night of undijiurbed Jlumber, we
cannot employ our leifure more delightfully,
than in deferibing all new Jljiatick plants in the
Linnaan ftyle and method, or in’corredling the
deferiptions of thofe already known, but of
which dry fpecimens only, or drawings, can have
beea feen by moft European botanlfts ; in this

22* ON ASIATICK HICTORY,

part of natural hiftory we have an ample field yet
unexplored ; for, though many plants of Arabia
have been made known by Garcias, Pros-
per Alpinus, and Forskoel, of Perfia, by
Garcin, of Tartary^ by Gmelin and Pallas,
of China and Japan, by Kcempfer, Osbeck,
and Thunberg, of India, by Rheede and
Rumphius, the two Burmans, and the much-
lamented Koenig, yet none of thofe naturalifts
were deeply verfed in the literature of the feve-
ral countries, from which their vegetable trea-
fures had been procured; and the numerous
works in Sanfcrit on medical fubftances, and
chiefly on plants, have never been infpeded, or
never at Icaft underftood, by any European at-
tached to the ftudy of nature. Until the garden
of the India Company fhall be fully ftored (as it
will be, no doubt, in due time) with Arabian,
Perjian, and Cbinefe plants, we may well be fa-
tisficd with examining the native flowers of our
own provinces ; but, unlefs we can difcover the
Sanfcrit names of all celebrated vegetables, we
fhall neither comprehend the allufions, which
Indian poets perpetually make to them, nor
(what is fiir worfe) be able to find accounts of
their tried virtues in the writings of Indian phy-
ficians; and (what is worfl of all) we fhall mils
an opportunity, which never again may prefent
itfelf} for the Pandits themfelves have almoft

CIVIL AND NATURAL.

223

wholly forgotten their ancient appellations of
particular plants, and, with all my pains, I have
not yet afcertained more than hvo hundred out
of twice that number, which are named in their
medical of poetical compofitions. It is much to
be deplored, that the illuftrious Van Rheede
had no acquaintance with Sunfcrit, which even
his three Brahmens, who compofed the fhort
preface engraved in that language, appear to
have underftood very imperfedly, and certainly
wrote with difgraceful inaccuracy : in all his
twelve volumes I recoiled only Punarnava, in
which the Ndgari letters are tolerably right ;
the Hindu wofds in Arabian charaders are
fliamefully incorred; and the Malabar, I am
credibly informed, is as bad as the reft. His
delinealicns, indeed, are in general excellent;
and, though Linnjeus himfelt could not ex-
trad from his written defcriptions the natural
charader of every plant in the colledion, yet we
{hall be able, I hope, to defcribe them all from
the life, and to add a confiderablc number of new
fpecies, if not of tiQvr getiera, which Rheede,
with all his noble exertions, could never procure.
Such of our learned members, as profefs me,*
dicine, will, no doubt, cheerfully aflift in thefe
refearches, either by’ their own obfervations,
when they have leifure to make any, or by com-
munications Irom other obfervers among their

226 ON ASIATICK HISTORY,

acquaintance, who may refide in different parts of
the country: and the mention of their art leads me
to the various ufes of natural fubftances, in the
three kingdoms or claffes to which they arc
generally reduced.

III. You cannot but have remarked, that al-
moft all the fciences^ as the French call them,
which are diftinguifhed by Greek names and ar-
ranged under the head of philofophy, belong
for the moft part to hiftory ; fuch are philology,
chymiftry, phyficks, anatomy, and even meta-
phyficks, when we barely relate the phenomena
of the human mind; for, in all branches of
knowledge, we are only hiftorians, when we
announce fa£ts, and philofophers, only when
we reafon on them : the fame may be con-
fidently faid of law and of medicine, the firft
of which belongs principally to civ^, and the
fecond chiefly to natural, hiftory. Here, thercr
fore, I fpeak of medicine, as far only as it is ground-
ed on experiment ; and, without believing im-
plicitly what Arabs, Ferjians, Cbinefe, or Hindus
may have written on the virtues of medicinal
fubftances, we may, furely, hope to find in their
writings what our own experiments may con-
firm or difproVe, and what might never have
occurred to us without fuch intimations.

Eurc^eans enumerate more than two hundred
cuid jifty mechanical arts, by which the pror

aVIL AND NATURAL.

227

dudlions of nature may be varioufly prepared
for the convenience and ornament of life ; and,
though the Silpafaflra reduce them to fixty-four^
yet Abu’lfazl had been aflured, that the Hin-
dus reckoned three hundred arts and fciences:
now, their fciences being comparatively few, we
may conclude, that they anciently praftifed at
leaft as many ufeful arts as ourfelves. Several
Pandits have informed me, that the treatiles on
art, which they call Upavedas and believe to have
been infpired, are not fo entirely loft, but that
confiderable fragments of them may be found at
Banares ; and they certainly poflefs many po-
pular, but ancient, works on that interefting fub-
je£t. The manufactures of fugar and indigo
have been well known in thefe provinces fc^
more than two thoufand years ; and we cannot
entertain a doubt, that their Sanjcrit books on
dying and metallurgy contain very curious fads,
which might, indeed, be difcovered by accident
in a long courfe- of years, but which we may
foon bring to light, by the help of Indiati lite-
rature, for the benefit of manufadurers and artifts,
and confequently of our nation, who are in-
terefted in their profperity. Difeoveries of the
fame kind might be colleded from the writings
of other AJiatick nations, efpecially of the Cbi-
nefe ; but, though Perfian, Arabick, Turkijb
and Sanferit are languages now fo accei3ible,that,

228 ON ASIATICK HISTORY, &c.

in order to obtain a fufficient knowledge of
them, little more feems required than a ftrong
inclination to learn them, yet the fuppofed
number and intricacy of the Cbinefe characters
have deterred our moft diligent ftudents from
attempting to find their way through fo vaft a
labyrinth : it is certain, however, that the dif-
ficulty has been magnified beyond the truth;
for the perfpicuous grammar by M. Fourmont,
together with a copious .dictionary, which I pof-
fefs, in Cbinefe and Latin, would enable any
man, who pleafed, to compare the original works
of Confucius, which are eafily procured, with
the literal tranflation of them by Couplet;
and, having made that firll ftep with attention,
he would probably find, that he had traverfed at
lead half of his career. But I ihould be led be-
yond the limits afiigned to me on this occafion,
if I were to expatiate farther on the hiftorical
divifion of the knowledge comprifed in the li-
terature of Jtfia ; and I muft poftpone till next
year my remarks on JJiatick philofophy and on
thofe arts, which depend on imagination ; pro-
mifing you with confidence, that, in the courfe
of the prefent year, your inquiries into the civil
and natural hijiory of this eaftern world will
be greatly promoted by 'the learned labours of
tnany among our aflbeiates and correfpondents.

DISCOURSE THE ELEVENTH.

ON

THE PHILOSOPHY OF TFIE ASIATICK&

DELIVERED ao FEBRUARV, 1794 .

>y

THE PRESIDENT.

Had it been of any importance, gentlemen,
to arrange thefe.anniverfary diflertations accord-
ing to the ordinary progrefs of the human mind,
in the gradual expanfion of its three moft con-
fiderable powers, memory^ imagination^ and reafon^
I Ihould certainly have prefented you with aa
eflay on the liberal arts of the five AJiatick na-
tions, before I produced ray remarks on their
ahJiraSt fciences' becaufe, from my ownobfenr-
ation at leaft, it feems evident, that fancy, or
the faculty of combining our ideas agreeably by
various modes of imitation and fubftitution, is in
general earlier exercifed, and fooner attains ma-
turity, than the power of feparating and com-
paring thofe ideas by\he lahorious exerdons of
intellect ; and hence, I believe, it has happened,
that all nations in the world had poets beforo

230

ON THE PHILOSOPHY

they h»d mere philofophers : but, as M. D’Alem-
bert has deliberately placed fcience before art,
as the queftion of precedence is, on this occafion,
of no moment whatever, and as many new
fadbs on the fubjeft of Jfiatick philofophy are
frefh in my remembrance, I propofe to addrefs
you now on the fciences of Afia, referving for
our next annual meeting a difquifition concern-
ing thofe fine arts, which have immemorially
been cultivated, with difierent fuccefs and in very
different modes, within the circle of our com-
mon inquiries.

By fcience I mean an aflemblage of tran-
fcendental propofitions difcoverable by human
reafon, and reducible to firft principles, axioms,
or maxims, from which they may all be derived
in a regular fucceffion; and there are confequently
as many fciences as there are generaji objeds of
our intelledlual powers : when man firft exerts
thofe powers, his obje£ts are himfelf and the
reft of nature } himfelf he perceives to be com-
pofed of body and m/nrf, and in his individual
capacity, he reafons on the ufes of his animal
frame and of its parts both exteriour and internal,
on the diforders impeding the regular funflions
of thofe parts, and on the moft probable methods
of preventing thofe diforders or of removing
them ; he foon feels the clofe connexion between
his corporeal and mental faculties, and when

OF THE ASIATICKS.

23 L

his mind is refledled on itfelf, he difcourfes on
its ejfence and its operations', in his focial cha-
ra(^er, he analyzes his various duties and rights
both private and publick; 'and in the leifure,
which the fulleft difcharge of thofe duties always
admits, his intelledl is diredled to nature at large,
to the fuhjiance of natural bodies, to their feveral
properties, and to their quantity both feparate
and united, finite and infinite ; from all which
objects he deduces notions, either purely abflra£t
and univerfal, or mixed with undoubted fa<ffs,
he argues from phenomena to theorems, from
thofe theorems to other phenomena, from caufes
to effeds, from effe£ls to caufes, and thus ar-
rives at the demonftration of a jirji intelligent
caufe j whence his colledbed wifdom, being ar-
ranged in the form of fcience, chiefly confifts of
pljyjiology and medicine, metapbjjicks and logick,
ethicks zxidi jurijprudence, natural philofophy and
matbematicks j from which the religion of nature
(fince revealed religion muft be referred to bif^
tory, as alone affording evidence of it) has in all
ages and in all nations been the fublime and con-
foling refult. Without profeffing to have given
a* logical definition of fcience, or to have exhi-
bited . a perfedf enumeration of. its objects, I
lhall confine myfelf to thofe five divifions of
Jfiatick philofophy, enlarging for the moft part
on the progrefs which the Hindus have made in

SSa ON THE PHILOSOPHY

them, and occafionally introducing the fciences
of the Arabs and FeijianSy the Tartars, and the
Cbinefe j but, how extenfive foever may be the
range which I have chofen, I fhall beware of
exhaufting your patience with tedious difcuilions,
and of exceeding thofe limits, which the occa-
fion of our prefent meeting has neceflarily pre-
feribed.

I. The firft article affords little fcopej fince
I have no evidence, that, in any language of
AJia, there exifts one original treatife on medi-
cine confidered as a fcience: phyfick, indeed,
appears in thefe regions to have been from time
immemorial, as we fee it pradlifed at this day
by Hindus and Mufehndns, a mere empirical
bijlory of difeafes and remedies ; ufeful, I ad-
mit, in a high degree, and worthy of attentive
examination, but wholly foreign to the fubjedi
before us : though the Arabs, however, have
chiefly followed the Greeks in this branch of
knowledge, and have themfelves been implicitly
followed by other Mohammedan writers, yet
(not to mention the Cbinefe, of whofe medical
works I can at prefent fay nothing with con-
fidence) we ftill have accefs to a number of
Sanferit book$ on the old Indian pradfice of
phyfick, from which, if the Hindus had a theo-
retical fyftem, we might eafily collet it. The
Ayurveda, fuppofed to be the work of a celeftial

OF THE ASIATICKS,

233

phyfician, is aJmoft entirely loll, unfortunately
perhaps for the curious European, but happily
for the patient Hindu ; lince a revealed fcience
precludes improvement from experience, to
which that of medicine ought, above all others,
to be left perpetually open j but I have 'myfelf
met with curious fragments of that primeval
work, and, in the Veda itfelf, I found with
aftonilhment an entire Upanijhad on the internal
parts of the human body ; with an enumeration
of nerves, veins, and arteries, a defeription of
the heart, fpleen, and liver, and various difqui-
fitions on the formation and growth of the fetus :
from the laws, indeed, of Menu, which have
lately appeared ih our own language, we may
perceive, that the .ancient Hindus were fond of
reafoning in their way on the myfteries of ani-
mal generation, and on the comparative Influence
of the fexes in the produftion of perfed olT-
fpring ; and we may collefl: from the authori-
ties adduced in the learned Eflay on Egypt and
the Nile, that their phyfiological difputes led to
violent fchifms in religion, and even to bloody
wars. On the whole, we cannot expeA to ac-
quire many valuable truths from an examination

of eaflem books on the fcience of medicine : but

• ^

examine them we muftt if we wilh to complete
the hiflory of univerfal philofophy, and to fup-

239

ON THE PHILOSOPHY

ply the fcholars of Europe with authentick ma-
terials for an account of the opinions anciently
formed on this head by the philofophers of
to know, indeed, with certainty, that fo much
and no more can be known on any branch of
fciencei would in itl'elf be very important and
lifeful knowledge, if it had no other effedi than
to check the boundlefs curiofity of mankind, and
to fix them in the ftraight path of attainable
fcience, efpecially of fuch as relates to their
duties and may conduce to their happinefs.

IL W E have an ample field in the next di-
vifion, and a field almoft wholly new ; fince
the mytaphyficks and logick of the Brdbmens,
comprifed in their fix philofophical Sdjiras^ and
explained by numerous gloffes or comments,
have never yet been acceflible to Europeans j
and, by the helpiof the Sanferit language, we now
may read the works of the Saugatas', BauddbaSf
A'rbataSf yainas, and other heterodox philofo-
phers, whence we may gather the metaphyfical
tenets prevalent in China and Japan, in the
eaftern peninfula of India, and in many con-
fidcrable nation# of Tartary : there are alfo fome
valuable traftt on thefe branches of fcience in
Pe^atPitdid Arahick, partly copied from the
GreepK{/iaid partly comprifing the do6trittes of
the ^ufis which anciently prevailed, and ftill

OF THE ASIATICKS,

^35

prevail in great meafure over this oriental world,
and which the Greeks themfelves condefcended
to borrow from eaftern fages.

The little treatife in four chapters, afcribcd
to Vydfa, is the only philofophical Sdjtra^ the
original text of which I have had leifure to pe-
rufe with a Brdhmen of the Feddnti fchool : it
is extremely obfcure, and, though compofed in
fentcnces elegantly modulated, has more refem-
blance to a table of contents, or an accurate
fummary, than to a regular fyftematical ira£t ;
but all its obfcurity has been cleared by the
labour of the very judicious and moft learned
S ANGARA, whofe commentary on the Feddnia,
which I read alfo with great attention, not only
elucidates every word of the text, but exhibits
a perfpicuous account of all other Indian fchools,
from that of Capiga to thofe of the ’more mo-
dern hereticks. It is not poflible, indeed, to
fpeak with too much applaufe of fo excellent a
work i and I am confident in alTerting, that,
until an accurate tranflation of it fliall appear in
fome European language, the general hiftory of
philofophy mull remain incomplete ; for I per-
ffedlly agree with thofe, who are of opinion,
that one corredl verfion of any celebrated Hindu
book would be of greater . value than all the
dilTertations or efifays, that could be compofed
on the lame fubje(2 i you will not, however, exi*

VOL. I, 5

236

ON THE PHILOSOPHY

pe£t, that, in fuch a difcourfe as I am now de-
livering, I fhould expatiate on the diverfity of
Indian philofophical fchools, on the feveral
founders of them, on the doftrines, which they
fefpedtively taught, or on their many difciples,
who diflented from their inftrudlors in fome
particular points. On the prefent occafion, it
will be fufficient to fay, that the oldeft head of
a fe£t, whofe entire work is preferved, was (ac-
cording to fome authors) Capila ; not the
divine perfonage, a reputed grandfon of Brah-
ma', to whom Cri'shna compares himfelf in
the Gita, but a fage of his name, who invented
the Satic'hya, or Numeral, philofophy, which
Cri'shna himfelf appears to impugn in his
converfation w'ith Arjuna, and w'hich, as far
as I can recolleft it from a few original texts,
refembled in part the metaphyficks of Pytha-
goras, and in part the theology of Zeno: his
doctrines were enforced and illuftrated, with
fome additions, by the venerable Patanjali,
who has alfo left us a fine comment on the
grammatical rules of Pa'nini, which are more
obfeure, without a glofs, than the darkeft oracle;
and here by the way let me add, that I refer to
metaphyficks the curious and important fciencc
of imiverfal grammar, on ‘Vvhich many fubtil dif-
quifitions may be found interfperfed in the par-
ticular grammars of the ancient Hindus, and in

OF THE ASIATICKS.

237

thofe of the more modem Arabs. The next
founder, I believe, of a philofophical fchool was
Go'tama, if, indeed, he .was not the moft an-
cient of all ; for his wife Ahaly'a was, accord-
ing to Indian legends, teftored to a hunian fhape
by the great Ra'ma ; and a fage of his name,
whom we have no reafon to fuppofe a different
perfonage, is frequently mentioned in the Veda
itfelf; to his rational dodirines thole of Ca-
nada were in general conformable; and the phi-
lofophy of them both is ufually called Nynya,
or logical^ a title aptly bellowed ; for it feems to
be a fyftem of metaphyficks and logick better
accommodated than any other anciently known
in IndiUy to the natural reafon and common
fenfe of mankind ; admitting the actual exiftence
of material fubjlance in the poi\ular acceptation
of the word matter, and compriling not only a
body of fublime dialedlicks, but an artificial
method of reafoning, with diftindl names for
the three parts of a propofition, and even for
thofe of a regular fyllogifm. Here I cannot
refrain from introducing a fingular tradition,
which prevailed, according to the well-informed
author of the Dabijldn, in the Punjab and in
feveral Ptrryiaw provinces, that, “ among other In-
** dian curiofities, which Callisthenes tranf-
“ mitted to his uncle, was a techniral JyJl<.m of
logick, which the Brdbmens had communicated

23» ON THE PUltOSOPHY

“ to the inquifitive Greek,*’ and which the Mo-
hammedan writer fuppofes to have been the
groundwork of the famous Arijtotelean method :
if this be true, it is one of the moll interefting
fa£ts, that I have met with in Afia ; and if it be
falfe, it is very extraordinary, that fuch a ftory
ihould have been fabricated either by the can-
did MdHSANi Fatii; or by the fimple Parsis
Pandits, with whom he had converfed; but,
not having had leifure to ftudy the NyJya Sdf-
tra, I can only alTure you, that I have frequently
feen perfed fyllogifms in the philofophical
writings of the Brahmens, and have often heard
them ufed in their verbal controverlies. What-
ever might have been the merit or age of Go'-
TAMA, yet the moft celebrated Indian fchool is
that, with whicji 1 began, founded by Vya'sa,
and fupported in moft refpefts by his pupil Jai-
MiNi, whofe diflent on a few points is mention-
ed by his mafter with refpe6fful moderation ;
their feveral fyftems are frequently diftinguilhed
by the names of the firft and fecond Mimdnjd,
a word, which, like Nyaya, denotes the opera-
tions and conclufions of reafon ; but the tra£t of
Vya'sa has in general the appellation of F eddnta,
or the fcope and end of the Veda, on the texts
of which, as they were underftood by the phi-
lofopher, who collected them, his dodtrines arc
principally grounded. The fundamental tenet

OF THE ASIATICKS.

239

of the Vedunti fchool, to which in a more mo-
dern age the incomparable Sancara was a
firm and illuftrious adherent, confifted, not in
denying the exiftence of matter, that is, of foli-
dity, impenetrability, and extended figure (to
deny which would be lunacy), but, in correct-
ing the popular notion of it, and in contending,
that it has no elTence independent of mental
perception, that exiftence and perceptibility are
convertible terms, that external appearances and
fenfations are illufory, and would vanifti into
nothing, if the divine energy, which alone fuf-
tains them, were fufpended but for a moment ;
an opinion, which Epicharmus and Plato
feem to have adopted, and which has been main-
tained in the prcTent century with great elegance,
but with little publick applaufe ; partly becaufe
it has been mifunderftood, and partly becaufe
it has been mifapplied by the falfe reafoning of
fome unpopular writers, who are laid to have
difbelieved in the moral attributes of Gon,
whofe omniprefence, wifdom, and goodnefs are
the bafis of the Indian philofophy : I have not
fufficient evidence on the fubjeCt to profefs a
belief in the dodrine of the Vedanta, which
human reafon alone could, perhaps, neither fully
demonftrate, nor fully difprove j but it is ma-
nifeft, that nothing can be farther removed from
impiety than a fyftem wholly built on the pureft

240 ON THE PHILOSOPHY

devotion ; and the inexpreflible difficulty, which
any man, who fhall make the attempt, will af-
furedly find in giving a fatisfadory definition
of material fubjlan<;e', muft induce us to delibe-
rate with coolnefs, before we cenfure the learned
and pious reftorer of the ancient Veda ; though
we cannot but admit, that, if the common opi-
nions of mankind be the criterion of philofophical
truth, we muft adhere to the fyftem of Go'ta-
MA, which the Brahmens- of this province almoft
univerfally follow.

If the metaphyficks of the Veddntis be wild
and erroneous, the pupils of Buddha have run,
it is afferted, into an error diametrically oppo-
fite; for they are charged with denying the
exiftcnce of pure fpirit, and with believing no-
thing abfolutely and really to exift but material
JubJlance ; a heavy accufation which opght only
to have been made on pofitive and inconteftable
proof, efpecially by the orthodox Brahmens,
who, as Buddha diffented from their anceftors
in regard to bloody facrijices, which the Veda
certainly preferibes, may not unjuftly be fufped-
ed of low and interefted malignity. Though I
cannot credit the charge, yet I am unable to
prove it entirely falfe, having only read a few
pages of a Saugata book, which Captain Kirk-
patrick had lately the kindnefs to give mej
fiut it begins, like other fiiVidbooks, with the

OF THE ASIATICKS.

•

word OVw, which we know to be a fyinboj of
the divine attributes; then follows, indeed, a
myftcrious hymn to the Goddefs of Nature, by
the name of A'ryu, but with feveral other titles,
which the Brahmens themfelves continually be-
llow on their Devi; now the Brahmens, who
have no idea, that any fuch perfonage exifts as
D' vi', or the Goddefs, and only mean to exprefs
allegorically the power oi Goo, exerted in creat-
ing, preferving and renovating this univerfe, we
cannot with jufticc infer, that the diffenters ad-
mit no deity but vijible nature: the Pandit,
who now attends me, and who told Mr. Wil-
kins, that the Sau galas were athcills, would
not have attempted to refill the decifive evidence
of the contrary, ’which appears in the very in-
llrument, on which he was confulted, if his un-
derllanding had not been blinded- by' the into-
lerant zeal of a mercenary priellhood. A literal
verfion of the book juft mentioned (if any ftudi-
ous man had learning and induftry equal to the
talk) would be an ineftimable treafure to the
compiler of fuch a hiftory as that of the labo-
rious Brucker ; but let us proceed to the
rfiorals and jurijprudence of the Afaticks, on
which I could expatiate, if the occafion admitted
a full difcullion of the^fubjeft, with corredlnels
and confidence.

IJI. That both ethicks and abftrad law

242

ON THE PHILOSOPHY

might be reduced to the method of fcience^ can-
not furely be doubted ; but, although fuch a
method would be of infinite ufe in a fyftem of
univerfal, or even of national, jurifprudence,
yet the principles of morality are fo few, fo lu-
minous, and fo ready to prefent themfelves on
every occafion, that the pradical utility of a
fcientifical arrangement, in a treatife on ethicks,
may very juftly be queftioned. The moralifts
of the eafl; have in general ehofen to deliver
their precepts in fhort fententious maxims, to
illuftrate them by fprightly comparifons, or to
inculcate them in the very ancient form of
agreeable apologues : there are,, indeed, both in
Arabick and Perjian^ philofophical trads on
ethicks written with found ratiocination and
elegant perfpicuity; but in every part of this
eaftern world, 'from Pekin to DamaJeuSy the
popular teachers of moral wifdom have imme-
morially been poets, and there would be no end
of enumerating their works, which are Hill ex-
tant in the five principal languages of AJia,
Our divine religion, the truth of which (if any
hiftory be true) is abundantly proved by hifto-
rical evidence, has no need of fuch aids, as many
are willing to give it, by aflerting, that the wifeft
men of this world- werd ignorant of the two
great maxims that we mujl adl in rejpedl of others,
as we Jhould ivijh them to adl in refpedt of mir^

OF THE ASIATICKS. 2«

/elves, and that, injlead of returning evil for evil,
we JJjould confer benefits even on tbofe who injure
us ; but the firft rule is implied in a fpeech of
Lysias, and exprefled in diftinft phrafes by
Thales and Pittacus; and I have even
feen it word for word in the original of Con-
fucius, which I carefully compared with the
Latin tranflation. It has been ufual with zealous
men, to ridicule and abufe all thofe, who dare
on this point to quote .the Chinefe philofopher ;
but, inftead of fupporting their caufe, they would
ftiake it, if it could be ftiaken, by their uncandid
afperity j for they ought to remember, that one
great end of revelation, as it is moft exprefsly
declared, was not to inftruft the wife and few,
but the many arid unenlightened. If the con-
verfation, therefore, of the Vandits and Maulavis
in this country fhall ever be ahempted by pro-
teftant miflionaries, they muft beware of aflert-
ing, while they teach the gofpel of truth, what
thofe Pandits and Maulavis would know to be
falfe : the former would cite the beautiful Aryd
couplet, which was written at lead three centuries
before our era, and which pronounces the duty
of a good man, even in the moment of his de-
ftrudtion, to confift not only in forgiving, but even
in a define of benefiting, bis defiroyer, as the
Sandal-iree, in the infiant of its overthrow, Jbeds
perfume on the axe, xvbicb fells it j and the latter

ON THE PHILOSOPHY

su

would triumph in repeating the verfe of Sadi*,
who reprefents a return of good for good as a
flight reciprocity, but fays to the virtuous man,
“ Corfer benefits on him who has injured iheef
ufmg an Arahick fcatence, and a maxim appa-
rently of the ancient Arabs. Nor would the
Mufelmans fail to recite four diftichs of H a fiz,
who lias illuftrated that maxim with fanciful but
elegant allufions •,

Learn from yon orient fhell to love thy foe,

Anci il-ore with pearls the hand, tliat brings thee wo :

FreCj like yon rock, from bafe vindiftive pride,

Imblaze with gems the wrlft, that rends thy fide :

Mark, where yon tree rewards the ftony (howV
With fruit neftareous, or the balmy flowh :

All nature calls aloud : Shall man do lefs
Than heal the fmiter, and the railer blefs ?”

Now therd is nofa fhadow of reafon for believ-
ing, that the poet of Shiraz had borrowed this
doctrine from the Chriflians ; but, as the caufe
of Cbrijlianity could never be promoted by falfe-
hood or errour, fo it will never be obftrufted by
candour and veracity ; for the leflbns of Con-
fucius and Chanacya, of Sadi and Ha'fiz,
are unknown even at this day to millions of
Cbinefe and Hindus, Perfians and other Ma~
hommedittis, who toil for ‘their daily fupport;
nor, were they known ever fo perfeftly, would
they have a divine fanftiou with the multitude j

OT THE ASIATICKS.

fo that, in order to enlighten the minds of the
ignorant, and to enforce the obedience of the
perverle, it is evidently a prion, that a revealed
religion was necefTary in the great fyftcm of
providence: but my principal motive for in-
troducing this topicK, was to give you a fpcci-
men of that ancient oriental morality, which is
comprifcd in an. infinite number of l*etjian,
/Irabick, and Siinfcrit compofitions.

Nearly one half oi juri [prudence is clofcly
conne£tcd with ethicks ; but, fince the learned
of A fill conlidcr moft of their laws as pofitive
and divine inftitutions, and not as the mere
conclufions of human rcafon, and fince I have
prepared a mafs of extremely curious materials,
which I referve for an introduction to the digeft
of Indian laws, I proceed to the fourth divifion,
which confifts principally of fetence ttanfeend-
ently fo named, or the knowledge of abJlraSl
quantities, of their limits, properties and relations,
imprelTed on the underftanding with the force
of irrcfiftible demonjlration, which, as all other
knowledge depends at bell on our fallible fenfes,
and in great meafure on ftill more fallible tef-
timony, can only be found, in pure mental ab-
ftraclions ; though for all the purpofes of life,
our own fenfes, and even the credible teftimony
of others, give us in moft cafes the higheft de>.
gree of gert^nty, phyftcal and inorgl,

ON THE PHILOSOPHY

IV. I HAVE already had occafion to touch on
the Indian metaphy licks of natural bodies accord-
ing to the moll celebrated of the Jjiatick fchools,
from which the Pythagoreans are fuppofed to
have borrowed many of their opinions ; and, as
we learn from Cicero, that the old lliges of
Europe had an idea of centripetal force and a
principle of univerjal gravitation {wdiich they
never indeed attempted to demonftratc), fo I
can venture to affirm, without meaning to pluck a
leaf from the neverfading laurels of our immortal
Newton, that the whole of his theology and
part of his philofophy may be found in the
VMas and even in the works of the Sufis : that
mojl fubtil Jpirity which he fufpefted to pervade
natural bodies, and, lying concealed in them, to
caufe attraction and repulfion, the emiffion, re-
flection, and ’refraction of light, eleCtricity, ca-
lefaCtion, fenfation, and mufcular motion, is de-
feribed by the Hindus as Si fifth element endued
with thofe ver) powers ; and the Vedas abound
W’ith allufions to a force univerfally attractive,
which they chiefly aferibe to the Sun, thence
called Aditya^ or the Attradtor ; a name dellgned
by the mythologifts to mean the child of the
Goddefs Aditi j but the moft wonderful paf-
f^e on the theory of ittraftion occurs in the
charming allegorical poem of Shir in and
Ferha D, or the Divini Spirit and a human

OF THE ASIATICKS.

247

Soul difinterejledly pious ; a work which from
the firft verfe to the laft, is a blaze of religious
and poetical fire. The whole paflage appears
to me fo curious, that I make no apology for
giving you a faithful tranflation of it : There
“ is a ftrong propenfity, which dances through
every atom, and attradls the minuteft particle
** to fome peculiar obje£t ; fearch this univerfe
** from its bafe to its fummit, from fire to air,
“ from water to earth, from all below the Moon
‘‘ to all above the celeftial fpheres, and thou
“ wilt not find a corpufcle deftitute of that na-
“ tural attraftibility ; the very point of the firft
“ thread, in this apparently tangled Ikein, is no
other than fuch a principle of attradion, and
“ all principles befide arc void of a real bafis ;
“ from fuch a propenfity arifes every motion
“ perceived in heavenly or in terreftrial bodies ;

it is a difpofition to be attraded, which taught
" hard fteel to rulh from its place and rivet itfelf
“on the magnet; it is the fame diipofition,
“ which impels the light ftraw to attach itfelf
** firmly on amber ; it is this quality, which gives
“ every fubftance in nature a tendency toward
“ another, and an inclination forcibly direded
“ to a determinate point.” Thcfe notions are
vague, indeed, and iJnfatisfadtory ; but permit
me to alk, whether the laft paragraph of Nkw-
ton’s incomparable work goes much farther,

ON THE PHILOSOPHT

248

and whether any fubfequent experiments haftf
thrown light on a fubjedt fo abftrufe and ob-
fcure : that the fubliine aftronomy and exqui-
fitdy beautiful geomeTy, with which that work
is illumined, Ihould in any degree be approached
by the Mathematicians of yijia, while of all
Europeans^ who ever lived, A chimed i:s alone
was capable of emulating them,, would be a vain
expedlation ; but we muft fufpend our opinion
of Indian aftronomical knowledge, till the Surya
Jiddbdnta fhall appear in our own language, and
even then (to adopt a phrafe of Cicero) our
greedy and capacious ears will by no means be
fatisfied ; for in order to complete an hiftorical
account of genuine Hindu aftronomy, we require
verbal tranflations of at leaft thtee other Sanfcrit
books; of the treatife by Paras ar a, for the
firft age of Jndia'n fcience, of that by Vara'ha,
with the copious comment of his very learned
fon, for the middle age, and of thofe written by
Bhascara, for times comparatively modern.
The valuable and now acceffible works of the
laft mentioned philofopher, contain alfo an uni-
verjal, or fpecious, arithmetick, with one chapter
at leaft on geometry; nor would it, furely, be
difficult to procure, through our feveral refidents
with the and with^SciNDHYA, the older

booki^On algebra, which Bhascara mentions,
and on which Mr. Davis would juftly fet a

OF THE ASIATICKS.

249

very high value ; but the Sanfcrit work, from
which we might expedl the moft ample and im-
portant information, is entitled CJhHrdderfa, or
a View of Geometrical Knowledge^ and was com-
piled in a very large volume by order of the il-
luftrious Jayasinha, comprifmg all that re-
mains on that fcience in the facred language of
India : it was infpedted in the weft by a Pandit
now in the fervice of Lieutenant Wilford,
and might, I am perfuaded, be purchafed at
Jayanagar, where Colonel Polier had permit*
fion from the Pdjd to buy the four V edas them-
felves. Thus have I anfwered, to the beft of
my power, the three firft queftions obligingly
tranfmitted to us by profeflbr Playfair ; whe-
ther the Hindus have books in Sanfcrit exprefs-
ly on geometry, whether they have any fuch
on arithmetick, and whether a trahflation of the
Siirya fiddhdnta be not the great defideraium on
the fubjedl of Indian aftronomy : to his three
laft queftions, whether an accurate fuinmary ac-
count of all the Sanfcrit works on that fubjedl,
a delineation of the Indian celeftial fphere, with
corredl remarks on it, and a defeription of the
aftronomical inftruments ufed by the ancieilt
Hindus, would not feveraily be of great utiljty,
we cannot but anfwer* in the affirmative, pro-
vided that the utmoft critical fagacity were ap-
plied in diftinguiihing fuch works, cooftellations;

S50

ON THE PHILOSOPHY

and inftruments, as are clearly of Indian origin,
from fuch as were introduced into this country
by Mufelman aftronomers .from Tartary and
Terfia, or in later days by Mathematicians from
Europe.

V, From all the properties of man and of na-
ture, from all the vafious branches of fcience,
from all the dedudions of human reafon, the ge-
neral corollary, admitted by Hindus^ Arabs, and
Tartars, by Perjians, and by Cbineje, is the fu-
premacy of an all-creating and all-preferving
fpirit, infinitely wife, good, and powerful, but
infinitely removed from the comprehenfion of
his moft exalted creatures ; nor are there in any
language (the ancient Hebrew always excepted)
more pious and fublime addrefles to the being of
beings, more fplendid enumerations of his attri-
butes, or more btiautiful deferiptions of his vifible
works., than in Arabick, Perjiun and Sanferit,
efpecially in the Koran, the introdudions to the
poems of Sadi, Niza'm'i, and Firdausi, the
four Vedas and many parts of the numerous Pu~
rdnas : but fupplication and pralfe would not
fatisfy the boundlefs imagination of the Veddnii
and Siift theologifts, who blending uncertain me-
ta|i)|^)|jp.witjh undoubted principles of religion,
hfliyp prefumed to reafon.confidently on the very
nature and efience of the divine fpirit, and af-
in a very remote age, what multitudes of

' ' OF THE ASIATICKS. 251

Hindus and Mufehnans aifert at this hour, that
all fpirit is hoin6geneou8, that the fpirit of God
is in kind the fame with that of man, though
differing from it infinitely in degree, and that,
as material fubftance is mere illufion, there exifts
in this univerfe only one generick fpiritual fub-
ftance, the foie primary caufe, efficient, fub-
ftantial and formal of all fecondary caufes and of
all appearances whatever, but endued in its high-
eft degree, with a fubllme providential wifdom,
and proceeding by ways incomprehenfible to the
fpirits which emane from it ; an opinion, which
Go'tama never taught, and which we have no
authority to believe, but which, as it is grounded
pn the do<ftrine of an immaterial creator fu-
premely wife, and a conftant preferver fupreme-
ly benevolent, differs as widely from the pan-
theifm of SriNOZAand Tol and,’ as th^ affirm-
ation of a propofition differs from the'^nega-
tion of it ; though the laft named profeffor of
that infane pbilofophy had the bafenefs to conceal
his meaning under the vefy words of Saint
Paul, which are cited by Newton for a pur-
pofe totally different, and has even ufed a phrafe,
which occurs, indeed, in the FMa, but in a fenffe
diametrically oppofite to that, which he would
have given it. The paffage, to which I allude,
is in a fpeech of Va run a to his fon, where he
fays : “ That fpirit, from which thefe created

VOL. I. T ' ■

U9 ON THE PHILOSOPHY, See,

“ beii^ t>roceed; through which having pro-
** needed from it, they live ; toward which they
*♦ tend and in which they are ultimately abforbi*
** ed, that fpirit ftudy to know ; that Q>irit is the
** Great. One.”

The fubjedl of this difrourfe, gentlemen, is in^^
exhauftible : it has been my endeavour to fay as
much on it as pollible in the fewell words ; and,
at the beginning of next year, I hope to clofe thefe
general difquifitions with topicks meafurelefs
in extent, but lefs abfrrufe than that, which has
this day been difeufled, and better adapted to the
gaiety, which feems to have prevailed in the
learned banquets of the Greeks^ and which ought,
furely, to prevail in every fympofiack aflembly.

¥(d ''' ,

u/je System ^

lNJ3TAN,AKAinA5^^& PERSIA
L E T T E R S.

^ ^ ////// ^ A

a or 0

h a

liha

Fonr/s

D/y/if/to/tgs

a a.

a. a

e

e

y

i

.s

()

o

w a

‘ u

s

u

a i

a u

r a

r i

1* i

Iri

Iri

1 a

a a

e e

A. V

i i

A

U 11

a a

( 'o/fA'omw/s

ca

J c’ha )

Ji’lia)

*

ka

klia t

ga

i.

ghal

n a

sa

sha

za

zha

s U

t a

t’ha^

^ a

(d’haj^

Vdhal

fi a

t a

jfha^

|tha‘)

da

(d'ha|

Idhaf

n a

pa

(pha)

ifa r

ba

jb’ha]

1 V a 1

m a

cha

ch.ha

i a

Tibsi

ifnv^

A DlSStlttATldN

. * ' * ,’-y.

ON THU

ORTHOGRAPHY OF ASIATICS WORDS
m ROMAN LETTERS.

THE PRESIDENT.

Every man, who has occafion to compofe
irads on JJiaticJi Literature, or to tranflate from
the Afiatick Languages, muft always find it con-
venient, and fometimes neceffary, to exprefs
Arabian, Indian, and Perjian words, or fen-
tences, in ,the charaders generally ufed among
Europeans] and almoft every writer ih'thofe
ctrcumfrances has a iaet|tpi^^j

found may be rendered invariably by one appro-
priated fymbol, conformably to the natural order
of articulation, and with a due regard to thb
primitive power of the Roman alphabet^ which
modem Europe has in general adopted. A
want of attention to this objed has occafioned
great confufion in Hiftory and Geography. The

T 2 ’• *

254 QN THE ORTHOGRAPHY

ancient Greeks^ who made a voluntary facrifice
of truth to the delicacy of their ears, appear to
have altered by defign almoft all the oriental
names, which they introduced into their elegant,
but romandek, Hiftories ; and even their more
modern Geographers, who were tpo vain, per-
haps, of their own language to learn any other,
have fo ftrangely difguifed the proper appel-
lations of countries, cities, and rivers in AJia,
that, without the guidance of the fagacious and
indefatigable M. D’Anville, it would have
been as troublcfome to follow Alexander
through the Patyab on the Ptolemaic k map of
Agathodjemon, as adlually to travel over the
fame country in its prefent Hate of rudenefs and
diforder. They had an unwarrantable habit of
moulding foreign names to a Grecian form, and
giving ^em a refemblance to fome derivative
worddn their own tongue i thus, they changed the
Gogra into AgoramSy or a river of. the ajfembly,
Uebab into Oay.dracce,y pr Jbarpjigbted, and Re-r
nos into AornoSy or a rock imccejfible to birds ;
whence their poets, who delighted in wonders,
embelliihed their works with new images, dif:
tinguifhing regipns and fprtrelTes by properties,
which exifted'pnly in imagination. If we have
lefs livelinels of fancy 'than the Ancients, wf
have more aeiniracy, more love of truth, and,
prhaps, more folidity of judgment ; and^ if our

OP ASIATICK WORI^S.

2S5

MvrDrks ihall afford lefs delight to thofe, in refpedt
of whom we (hall be Ancients; it may be faid
Tvdthout prefumption, that we Ihall give them
more corredl information -on the Hiftory and
Geography of this eaftern world ; lince. no man
can perfeftly defcribe a country, who is unac>
quanted with the language of it. The learned
and entertaining work of M. D’Herbelot,
which profeffes to interpret and elucidate the
names of perfons and. places, and the titles of
books, abounds alfo in citations from the beft
writers of Arabia and Verfia j yet, though his
orthography will be found lefs defedfive than
that of other writers on fimilar fubjedlsj without
excepting the illuftrious Prince Kantemir,
ftill it requires mbre than a moderate knowledge
of Perjian, Arabick, and TurkiJJj, to comprehend
all the paffages quoted by Kim m^European
charadters ; one inftance of which I cannot
forbear giving. In the account of Ibm Zaidurit
a celebrated Andalujian poet, the firft couplet of
an elegy in Arabick is praifed for its elegance,
and expreffed thus in Roman letters :

lekad he'i'n tenagikotn dhatnairna j

lacdha ^laina alaiTa laula talfina.

•

The time, adds* the .tranllator, will foon
come, when you will deliver us from all ova
** cares : the remedy b affured, provided we

2se-

ON THE ORTHOGRAPHY

“ have a little patience.*’ When Dr. Hunt of
Oj^ord, whom 1 am bound to name with gra-
titude and veneration, together with two or three
others, attempted at - my requeft to write the
fame dil^ich in Arabum charaders, they all
wrote it differently, and all, in my prefent opi-
nion, erroneoufly. I was then a very young
ftudent, and could not eafily . have procured.
Ibm Zaiduns works, which are, no doubt, pre-
ferved in the Bodley library, but which have
not fince fallen in my way. This admired cou-
plet, therefore, I have never feen in the original
characters, and confefs myfelf at alofs to render
them with certainty. Both verfes are written
by D'Herbelot without attention to the gram-
matical points, that is, in a form which no learn-
ed Arab would give them in recitation ; but, al-
though th6 French verfion be palpably erroneous.
It is by no means eafy to correCl the errour. If
dlds^ or a remedy be the true reading, the nega-
tive particle muft be abfurd, fmce tadjfaina fig-
nifies we are patient, and not we defpair, but, if
dldfay or affii&ion be the proper word, fome ob-
fcurity muft arife from the verb, with which it
agrees. On the whole I guefs, that the diftich
ihould thus be written :

OF ASiATlCK WORDS.

95t

Tecddu bbim timdjicum d‘<emiirunh
Takdi Maim ‘Idfay lau Id tadfsind*

" When our bofoms impart their fecrets to
“ you, anguith would aimoft fix our ^oom, i£
“ we were not mutually to confole ourfelves.’*
The principal verbs may have a future fenfe*
and the laft word may admit of a different inter-
pretation. Dr. Hunt, I remember, had found
in Gigoeius the word-dbem^er, which he con-
ceived to be in the original. After all, the
rhyme feems imperfed, and the meafure irre-
gular. Now I afk, whether fuch perplexities
could have arifen, if UHerbelot or his Editor
had formed a regular fyilsm of exprelEng Ara-
tick in Roman characters, and had apprized bis
readers of it in his introductory differtation i
If a further proof be requiredT, that fUch a fyf*
tern will be ufeful to the learned and effential to
the ftudent, let me remark, that a learner of
PerJiaUf who fhould read in our belt hiftories
the life of Sultan Azim, and wilh to write his
name in Arabick letters, might exprefs it thirty-
nine different ways, and be wrong at laft: the
word fhould be written Adzem with three points
on the iirft confonant.

There are two general modes of exhibiting
AJiatick words in our own letters: they are
founded on prukiples nearly oppoiite, but each

2S8 ON THE ORTHOGRAPHY

of them has hs advatltages, and each has been
recommended by refpeftable authorities. The
firft profefles to regard chiefly the pronunciation
of the words intended to be expreflfed ; and this
method^as far as it can be purfued, is unqueftion-
ably ufeful : but new founds are very inade-
quately prefented to a fenfe not formed to re-
ceive them ; and the reader mull in the end be
left to pronounce many letters and fyllables pre-
carioufly; befides, that by this mode of ortho-
graphy all grammatical analogy is dellroyed,
Ample founds are reprefented by double cha-
ra^ers, vowels of one denomination Hand for
thofe of another ; and polfibly with all our la-
bour we perpetuate a provincial or inelegant
pronunciation : all thefe objections may be made
to the ufual way of writing Kummerbund, in
which neither tfie letters nor the true found of

c

them are preferved, while Kemerbend^ or Cetner-
hend^ as an ancient Briton <vould write it, clearly
exhibits both the original characters and the
pronunciation of them. To fet this
point in a ftrong light, we need only fuppofe,
that the French had adopted a fyftem of letters
wholly diflferent from ours, and of which we
had no types in our printing-houfes : let us con-
ceive an Englijbman acq&ainted with their lan-
guage to be pleafed with Malherbe’s well-
known iimtation of Horace^ and defurous of

OF AStATIOK WOitDd. 25 s

quoting it ift fome piece of criticifm. He would
read thus :

‘ La mort a des rigueurs a nulle autre pareilles ;

‘ On a beau la prier:

^ La cruelle qu’elle eft fc bouche les oreilless
‘ Et nous lailTe crier.

‘ Le pauvre en fa cabanc, ou le chaumc le couvre,

* Eft fujet a fes loix,

* Et la garde, qui veille aux barrieres du Lotwre^

‘ N’en defend pas nos rois !’

Would he then exprefs thefe eight verfes, in
Roman chara£lers, exactly as the French them-
felves in fa(5l exprefs them, or would he deco-
rate his compofition with a paflage more re-
fembling the dialedl of favages, than that of a
pollrtied nation ? His pronuncktion, good or
bad, would., perhaps, be thus reprefented ;

* Law more aw day reegyewrs aw nool otruh parellyuh,

‘ Onne aw bo law precay ;

^ Law crooellyuh kellay fuh boodmh lays oreliyub,

‘ Ay noo layfuh creeay.

* Luh povre ong faw cawbawn oo luh chomuh luh coovruh,

* Ay foozyet aw fay Iwaw,

* Ay law gawrduh kee velly 6 bawryayruh dyoo Loovruh

‘ Nong dayfong paw no rwaw !’

The fecond fyftem of JJiatick Orthography
condfts in fcrupuloufly rendering lettep^br letter/

360

ON THE ORTHOGRAPHY

without any particular care to preferve the pro-
nunciation ; and, as long as this mode proceeds
by unvaried rules, it feems clearly entitled to
preference.

For the firft method of writing Perjian words
the warmeft advocate, among my acquaintance,
was the late Major Davy, a Member of our
Society, and a man of parts, .whom the world
loft prematurely at a time, when he was me-
ditating a literary retirement, and hoping to pafs
the remainder of his life in domeftick happinefs,
and in the cultivation of his very ufeful talents.
He valued himfelf particularly on his pronun-
ciation of the Pcrjian language, and on his new
way of exhibiting it in our charadlers, which he
inftrudted the learned and amiable- Editor of his
Injiitutes of Timour at Oxford to retain with
minute attention throughout his work. Where
he had acquired his refined articulation of the
Perjian, I never was informed j but it is evi-
dent, that he fpells moft proper names in a man-
ner, which a native of Perjia, who could read
our letters, would be unable to comprehend.
For inftance: that the capital of Azarbdijdn is
now called Tabriz, I know from the mouth of a
perfon bom in that city, as well as from other
Iranians', and that it was fo called fixteen hun-
dred years^^o, we all know from the Geography
of PtoleHfj^ yet Major Davy always wrote it

OF ASIATICS words;

261

Tubburaze, and infifted thiU; it (hould thus be
pronounced. Whether the natives of Semer~
hand, or Samarkand^ who probably fpeak the
dialedt of Sogbd with a Turanian pronunciation,
call their birthplace, as Davy ipelled it,. Sum-
murkund, I have yet to learn ; but I cannot be-
lieve it, and am convinced, that the former mode
of writing the word exprcfies both the letters
and the found of them better than any other
combination of charadlcrs. His method, there-
fore, has every defe£l ; lince it renders neither
the original elements of words, nor the founds
reprefented by them in Perjia, where alone we
muft feek for genuine PerfiaHy as for French in
France, and for Italian in Italy.

The fecond- method has found two able fup-
porters in Mr. Halhed and Mr. Wilkins; to
the lirft of whom the publick is indebted for a
perfpicuous and ample grammar of the Bengal
langu^e, and to the fccond for more advantages
in Indian literature than Europe, or India, can
ever fulficiently acknowledge.

Mr. Halhed, having jurtly remarked, ‘ that
‘ the two greateft defers in the orthography of
‘ any language are the application of the fame
‘ letter to feveral different founds, and of different
‘ letters to the fame found?' truly pronounces them
both to be * fo common in Efiglijh, that he was
‘ exceedingly embarraffed in the choice of letters

262 ON THE OfttHOGRAPHY

‘ to exprefs the found of the Bengal vowels, an^
‘ was at laft by no means fatisfied with his own
* felediion.’ If any thing diflatisfies me, in his
clear and accurate lyftem, it is the ufe of double
letters .for the long vowels (which might how-
ever be juftified) and the frequent intermixture
of Italick with Roman letters in the fame word j
which both in writing and printing mull be
very inconvenient : perhaps it may be added,
that his diphthongs are not exprelTed analogoufly
to the founds, of which they are compofed.

The fyftem of Mr. Wilkins has been equally
well confidered, and Mr. Halhed himfelf has
indeed adopted it in his preface to the Compila-
tion of Hindu Laws : it principally confifts of
double letters to fignify oUr third and fifth
vowels, and of the common profodial marks to
afcertain their \>revity or their length ; but thofe
marks are fo generally appropriated to books of
profody, that they never fail to convey ^ idea
of metre ; nor, if profodial fign were adbpt-

ed, would both be neceflary j fince the omiffion
of a long mark would evidently denote the (hort-
nefs of the unmarked vowel, or converfely. On
the whole, I cannot but approve this notation
for Sanfcrit words, yet require fomething more
tmiverfally expreflive of AJiatick letters : as it is
pofe^i, however, in its kind, and will appear
in the works of its learned inventor, I Ihall an-

OF ASIATICS WORDS. m

nex, among the examples, four diftichs from the
Bhdgawat exprefled both in his method and
mine * : a tranflation of them will be produced
pn another occafion ; but, in order to render this
trad as complete as poffible, a fuller fpecimen of
$anfcrit will be fubjoined with the original
printed in the charaders of Bengal, into which
the Brahmans of that province tranfpofe all their
books, few of them being able to read the De~
vandgari letters ; fp far.has their indolence pre»
vailed over their piety !

Let me now proceed, not prefcrlbing rules for
others, but explaining thofe which I have prcr
fcribed for myfelf, to unfold my own fyftem,
the convenience of which has been proved by
careful obfervation and long experience.

It would be fuperfluous to difcourfe on the
organs of fpeech, which have Ueen a thoufand
times difleded, and as often del'cribed by ipiili-
cians or anatomifts j and the feveral powers of
whiph every man may perceive either by the
touch or by fight, if he will attentively obferve
another perfon pronouncing the different claffes
of letters, or pronounce them hinafelf diftindly
before a mirror : but a fhort analyfis of articulate
founds may be proper to introduce an examina-
tion of every feparate fymbol.

• Plate IV.

264

Oft tm OlLtHOGRAPHY

things abound with errour^ as the old fearch-
ers for truth remarked with defpondence j but it
is really deplorable, that our firft ftep from total
ignorance fliould be into grofs inaccuracy, and
that we fhould begin our education in ^Mg-
land with learning to read the jive vowels, tzvo
of which, as we are taught to pronounce
them, are clearly diphthongs. There are, in-
deed, five fimple vocal founds in our language,
as in that of Rome ; which occur in the words
an innocent bully though not precifely in their
natural order, for we have retained the true ar-
rangement of the letters, while we capricioufly
difarrange them in pronunciation; fo that our
eyes are fatisfied, and our ears difappointed.
The primary elements of ai^culation are the
foft and hard breathings, the Jpiritus lenis and
jpiritus afper of the Latin Grammarians. If the
lips be opened ever fo little, the breath fuffered
gently to pafs through them, and the feebleft
utterance attempted, a found is formed of fo
fimple a nature, that, when lengthened, it con-
tinues nearly the fame, except that, by the leaft
acutenefs in the voice it becomes a cry, and is
probably the firft found uttered by infants ; but
if, while this ‘element is articulated, the breath
be forced with an effoft through the Kps, we
f«rm an ajpirate more or lefs harfh in pro-
portion to the force exerted. When, in pro-

OF ASIATiqK WORDS. ^5

nouncing the fimple vowel, we open our lips
wider, we exprefs a found completely articulated,
which moft nations Have agreed to place the
jirjl in their fymbolical fyftems: by opening
them wider ftill with the comers of them a
little drawn back, we give birth to the fecond c£
the Roman vowels, and by a large aperture, vrith
a farther inflexion of the lips and a higher ele-
vation of the tongue, we utter the third of them.
By purfing up our lips, in the leaft degree, wc
convert the fimple element into another found
of the fame nature with the JirJl vowel, and
eafily confounded with it in a broad pronun-
ciation : when this new found is lengthened, it
approaches very nearly to the fourth vowel,
which we form by a bolder and ftronger ro-
tundity of the mouth ; a farther contraction of
it produces the fifth vowel, whlbh’ in its elon-
gation almoft clofes the lips, a final! paflage only
being left for the breath. Thefe are all fhort
vowels; and, if an Italian vvere to read the
words an innocent bull, he would give the found
of each correfponding long vowel, as in the mo-
nofyllables of his own language, 7^, To,
Between thefe ten vowels are numberlefs gra--
dations, and nice inflexions, which ufe only can
teach ; and, by the compofition of, them all,
might be formed an hundred diphthongs, and a
Aoufand triphthongs ; many of which are found

266 ON THE ORTHOGRAPHY

ini Italian, and were probably articulated by the
Greeks ; but we have only occafion, in this
tra£t, for two diphthongs, which are compound-
ed of the JirJi vovvel with the third, and with
the jijthy and fliould be exprefled by their con-
ftituent letters: as to thofe vocal compounds
which begin with the third a.r\d Jifth fliort vowels,
they are generally and not inconveniently ren-
dered by diftin£i charadlers, which are im-
properly ranged among the confonants. The
tongue, which aflifts in forming feme of the
vowels, is the principal inftrument in articulat-
ing two liquid founds, which have fomething of
a vocal nature; one, by ftriking the roots of the
upper teeth, while the breath pafles gently
through the lips, another, by an inflexion up-
wards ^ith a tremulous motion ; and thefe two
liquids coalefct with fuch eafe, that a mixed
letter, ufed iq fome languages, iqay be formed
by the firft of them followed by the fecond :
when the breath is obftrufted by the preflure of
the tongue, and forced between the teeth on
pach fide of it, a liquid is formed peculiar tq th§
Brityh dialect of the Celtick,

We ^y now confidcr in the fame order, be-
ginning with tbe ^•oot of the tongue and ending
with the^ji^fed clofe qf the lips, thofe lefs mu-
fical which require the aid of a vawel,^

or at lemj: of the Jimple breathing, to be fully ^ir-r

O# ASiATICK WORDS.

367

tieulated j and it may here be premlfed, that the
harjb breathing diftinftly pronounced after each
of thefe confonanls^ as they are named by gram-
marians, conftitutes' its proper afpirate.

By the afliftance of the tongue and the palate
are produced two congenial founds, differihg only
as hard and/oft ; and thefe two may be formed
ftill deeper in the throat, fo as to imitate, with a
long vowel after them, the voice of a raven; but
if, while they are uttered, the breath be harflily
protruded, two analogous articulations are heard,
the fecond of which feems to charafterize the
pronunciation of the Arabs', while the nafal
found, very common among the Perfians and
Indians, may be confidered as the foft palatine
with part of the breath palling through the
nofe; which organ would by itfelf rather pro-
duce a vocal found, common alfcj in Arabia, and
not unlike the cry of a young antelope and fomc
other quadrupeds.

Next come different clalfes of dentals, and
among the firft of them lliould be placed the
fibilants, which moll nations exprefs by an in-
dented figure : each of the dental founds is hard,
o^ foft, lharp or obtufe, and, by thrufting the
tip of the tongue between the teeth, we form
two founds exceedingly common in Arabick and
Englijh, but changed into lifping fibilants by
the Perjians and French, while they on the

VOL. I. W

- ON THE ORTHOGRAPHY

Other hand have a found unknov(rn to the Arahs^
and uncommon in our language, though it occurs
in fome words by the com'pofiticn of the hard fibi-
lant with our laft vowel pronounced as a diph-
thong. The liquid nafal follows thefe, beingform-
ed by the tongue and roots of the teeth, with a
little afliftatice from the other organ; and we mud
particularly remember, when we attend to the pro-
nunciation of Indian dialects, that mod founds of
this clafs are varied in a fmgular manner by turn-
ing the tongue upwards, and almod bending it
back towards the palate, fo as to exclude them
nearly from the order, but not from the ana-
logy, of dentals.

The labials form the lad feries, mod of which
are pronounced by the appuife of the lips on
each other or on the teeth, and one of them by
their perfect dofe : the letters, by which they
are denoted, reprefent in mod alphabets the cur-
vature of one lip or of both ; and a natural cha-
raSicr for all articulate founds might eafily be
agreed on, if nations would agree on any thing
generally beneficial, by delineating the feveral
organs of fpeech in the ad: of articulation, and
fcle£ting from each a didin<d and elegant outline.
A perfedt language would be that, in which
every idea, capable of »ntering the human mind,
might be neatly and emphatically exprefled by
one fpcdfick word, fimple if the idea were fim-

OF ASIATICS: WORDS. &€9

pie, complex, if complex ; and on the fame
principle a perfe<a fyliem of letters otlght to
contain one fpecifick fymbol for every found
ufed in pronouncing the language to which they
belonged: in this refpeft the old Perjian or
Zend approaches to perfe(ftion ; but the Arabian
alphabet, which all Mohammedan nations have
inconfiderately adopted, appears to me fo com-
plete for the purpofe of writing Arahick, that
not a letter could be added or taken away with-
out manifeft inconvenience, and the fame may
indubitably be faid of the Devandgari fyftem ;
which, as it is more naturally arranged than any
other, fhall here be. the ftandard of my particulas:
obfervations on Ajiatick letters. Our Englijb
alphabet and orthography are difgracefully and
almoft ridiculoufly imperfect ; and it would be
impoflible to exprefs either Indian^ Perjian^ or
Arabian words in Roman charadlers, as we are
abfurdly taught to pronounce them ; but a mix-
ture of new charaders would be inconvenient,
and by the help of the diacritical marks ufed by
the French, with a few of thofe adopted in our
own treatifes on fluxions, we may apply our
prefent alphabet fo happily to the notation of all
Jflatick languages, as to equal the Devandgari
itfelf in precifion and dlearnefs, and fo regularly
that any one, who knew the original letters,
might rapidly and unerringly tranfpofe into theUi

270

ON THE ORTHOGRAPHY

all the proper names, appellatives, or cited paf-
fages, occurring in tradt^ of Jfiatick literature.

• ^

This is the fimpleft element of articulation, or
firft vocal found, concerning ■which enough has
been faid: the word America begins and ends
with it ; and its proper fymbol therefore is A ;
though it may be often very conveniently ex-
prefled by E, for reafons; which I fliall prefently
offer. In our own anomalous language we com-
monly mark this elementary found by our fifth
vowel, but fometimes exprefs it by a ftrange va-
riety both of vowels and diphriiongs ; as in the
phrafe, a mother bird fiuUcrs over her young ; an
irregularity, which no regard* to the derivation
of words or to blind cuftom can in any degree
juftify. The *Ndgari letter is called Acar, but
is pronounced in Bengal like our fourth fhort
vowel, and in the zvefl of India, like our firfi :
in all the dialects properly Indian it is confider-
cd as inherent in every confonant ; and is placed
lad in the fyftem of the Tibetians^ becaufe the
letters, which include it, are firft explained in
their fchools. If our double confonants were
invariably conne<ft:ed, as in Sanfcrit, it would
certainly be the better way to omit the fimple
element, except when it begins a word. This
letter anfwers to the faUbhab, or open found of

^ m X f ^

^ ^ ^ 4 5 ^ ^ f

^ \ ^

^ ^T ^ =^ ■ ^ ^

■^^217171515; «r
^R-gvTJ^-Zl

q fl ^ fr Ti

l/

/

/ \

«

— '

4

J.

s

• 4

r

t

4

ji}

O

«

6

L

• ♦

•

•

*•

. ^

b

b

o'

1

*

G

J

G

<

u

r

. &

)

•

)

— i

■c)

1

✓ 4

J

y

4

4

0

(j

jk»

II

■ C

•

•

••

c/

J

t/

»

icilijiijid cl cl

vJ' -ew

-> ^ -A

(db fni

OF ASIATICK WtWlDS. 271

tlw ArahSf and, in fome few words, to the Zeher
of the Per^anSy or an acute accent placed above
the letter; but this Arabian mark, which was
fupplied in the Pablavi by a diftindt charadter,
is more frequently pronounced at Isfahan either
like our firjl or our fecond Ihort vowel, as in
chajbm ferzend, and the diftindtion feems to
depend, in general, on the nature of the con-
fonant, which follows it. Two of our letters,
therefore, are neceflary for the complete nota-
tion of the acar and zeber; and thus we may
be able occafionally to avoid ridiculous or offen-
five equivocations in writing Oriental words,
and to preferve the true pronunciation of the
Perjians, which differs as widely from that of
the Munima'ns in India, as the language of our
Court at St. yames’s differs from that of thd
^u^icks in xhe Gentle Sbepberd>

When the firjl vowel, as the Perjians pro-
nounce it in the word bakbt, is doubled or pro-
longed as in bakbt, it has the found of the fecond
Nagari vowel, and of the firft Arabick letter,
that is, of our long vowel in cqft ; but the Arab's
-deride the Perfians for their broad proriunciatidA
of this letter, which in Iran has always the found
of our vowel in colly and is often fo^prolatedi as
to referable the fourth pd even fifth of our

272 ON THE ORTHOGRAPHY

long vowels. Its natiur^ mark would be the
Ihort A doubled I but ah acute accent in the
middle of words, or a grave at the end of them,
will be equally clear, and conformable to the
practice of polifhed nations on the continent of
Europe. The very broad found of the Arabian
letter, which they call extended^ and which
the Terjians extend yet more, as in the word
dsdn, may aptly enough be reprefented by the
profodial fign, fmce it is conftantly long ; where-*
as the mark batnzab as conftantly Jboriens the
letter, and gives it the found of the point above,
or below, it ; as in the words osid and IJldm :
the changes of this letter may perplex the learner,
but his perplexity will foon vanifli, as he ad-
vances. In writing Ajiatick names, we fre-
quently confound the broad d with its corre-
fpondent fhort vowel, which we improperly ex-
prefs by an O ; thus we write Cojfim for Kdjim
in defiance of analogy and corredlnefs. Our
vowel in fond occurs but feldom, if ever, in
Arabian^ Indian, or Perjian words : it is placed,
neverthelefs, in the general fyftem with the fhort
profodial mark, and ftands at the head of the
vowels, becaufe it is in truth only a variation of
the iimjde breathing.

t

€)uf iliird vowel, eorredly pronounced, ap-
pe^ next in the Nagari fyftem; ibr our fecond

OF ASIATICK WORDS.

273

Ihort vowel has no place in it. This vocal
found is reprefented in Arabick by an acute
accent under the letter; which at Mecca has
almoft invariably the fame pronunciation ; but,
fince, in the Zend^ a character like tire Greek
E-pJilon reprefents both our fecond and third
fhort vowels, the Perjians often pronounce zir
like zebeTf calling this country Hend^ and the
natives of it Hetidus: neverthelefs it will be
proper to denote the Sanfcrit icar, and the Ara-
bian cajr by one unaltered fymbol ; as in the
words Indra and Imam.

The third vowel produced or lengthened is,
for the reafon before fuggefted, beft marked by
an accent either acute or grave, as in Italian :
l^e cerca, fe dice ;

L’amico dov’e ?

L’amico infelice,

Rifpondi, mori !

Ah ! no; si gran duolo
Non darle per me.

Rifpondi, ma folo :

Piangendo parti.

It was once my pradice to 'reprcfent this
long vowel by two marks, as in the words
Lebeid and Deiwan, to denote xhelmnt in Ara-
hick as well as the letter above it ; but my prefent

274

ON THE ORtHOGRAPHY

opinion is, that Leh'id and Diwdn are more con-
formable to analogy, and to the Italian ortho-
graphy, which of &\\ European fyftems approaches
neareft to perfection,

This is our fifth vowel ; for our fourth fhort
one is, like our fecoud, rejected from the pure
pronunciation of the Sanfcrit in the weft of
India and at Bdndras^ though the Bengalefe
retain it in the firft Pldgaft letter, which they
call ocdr: to the notation of this found, pur vQwel
in full and the Perfian in gul fhould be conftantly
appropriated, fmee it is a fimple, articulation, and
cannot without impropriety be reprefented by
a double letter. It anfwers to hu-pjilon, and,
like that, is often confounded with iota: thus
mufix has the found of mijhc among the modern
Peifhins, as Numpha was pronounced Nyrnpha
by the Romans. The damm of the Arabs is,
however, frequently founded, efpecially in Per-
fia, like our fhort O in memory^ and the choice
of two marks for a variable found is not im-
proper in itfclf, and will fometimes be found
very convenient,

The fame lengthened, and properly expreifed
by an adc^t, as in the word virtu : it is a very
'Jong vowel in Perjian, fo as nearly to treble the

OF ASIATICK WORDS.

21S

quantity of its correfpondent fhort one ; and
this, indeed, may be obferved of all the long
vowels in the genuine Jsjahdiu pronunciation ;
but the letter vdii is often redundant, fo as not
to alter the found of the fliort vowel preceding
it ; as in khoJJj and khod : it may, ncverthelefe,
be right to exprefs that letter by an acceqt.

A vocal found peculiar to the Smifcrit lan-
guage : it is formed by a gentle vibration of the
tongue preceding our third vowel pronounced
very JJ:ort, and may be well expreffed by the
profodial mark, as in RiJJji, a Saint. When it
is connected with a confonant, as in CriJIma, no
part of it is ufed but the curve at the bottom.
We have a fimilar found in the word merrily ^
the fecond fy liable of which* is much ihorter
than the firft fyllable of riches.

9

The fame complex found confiderably length-
ened ; and, therefore, diftinguilhable by the pro-
fodial fign of a long vowel.

In Bengal, where the ra is often funk in the
pronunciation of compound fyllables, this letter
pxprelTes both fyllables pif our word lily } but its

276

ON THE ORTHOGRAPHY

genuine found, I believe, is /r/, a fhort triph-
thong peculiar to the Sanfcrit language.

Whatever be the true pronunciation of the
former fymbol, this is only an elongation of it,
and may, therefore, be diftinguiflied by the me-
trical fign of a long vowel.

o

Our fecond long vowel, beft reprefented, like
the others, by an accent, as in V eda^ the facred
book of the Hindus^ which is a derivative from
the Sanfcrit root vid, to know. The notation,
which I recommend, will have this important
advantage, that learned foreigners in Europe will
in general pronounce the oriental words, ex-
preffed by it, with as much corrednefs and fa-
cility as our own nation.

d*

This Is a diphthong compofed of our fiji and
third vowels, and expreffible, therefore, by them,
as in the word Vaidya, derived from and
meaning a man of the medical caji : in Bengal it
is pronounced as the Greek diphthong in poimen^
a fhepherd, was probably founded in ancient
Greece. The Arabs and the Englifb articulate
this compofition ex%dly alike, though we are

0F ASIATICK -WOUDS. 271

pleafed to cxprefs it by a fimple letter, which,
on the continent of Europe^ has its genuine
found. In the mouth of an Italian the con-
ftituent vowels in the words mai and miei do
not perfectly coalefce, and, at the clgfe of a
verfe, they are feparated ; but a Frefichman and
a Perjian would pronounce them nearly like the
preceding long vowel ; as in the word Mai\
which at Paris means our month of the lame
name, and at Isfahan fignifies wine : the Pcrjian.
word, indeed, might with great propriety be
written mei, as the diphthong ieems rather to be
compofed of our fecond and third Ihort vowels;
a compofition vpry common in Italian poetry.

3

Though a coalition of acar and near forms
this found in Sanferit, as in the myftical word
dm, yet it Is in fa£t a fimple articulation, and
the fourth of our long vowels.

Here, Indeed, we meet with a proper diph*
thong, compounded of our firfl and fifth vowels?
and in Perfia the conftituent founds are not per-
fectly united ; as in the word Firdaufi, which
an Italian would pronounce exactly like a na-
tive of Isfahan. Perhaps, in Arabick words, it
may be proper to reprefent by an accent the
fetters ya and wdtv, which, preceded by the

278 ON THE ORTHOGRAPHY

Open vowel, form the refpeftive diphthong^ in
Z,ohair and Jauheri ; blip the omiflion of this
accent would occafipn little inconvenience,

;5j»

This is no vowel, but an abbreviation, at the
end of a fyllable, of the nafal confonants : thus
the Tortuguefe write Siao for Siam with a nafal
termination; and the accurate M. D’Anville
exprefles great unwillingnefs to write Siam for
the country, and Siamois for the people of it,
yet acknowledges his fear of innovating, ‘ not-
‘ withftanding his attachment to the original and
‘ proper denominations of countries and places/
It appears to me, that the addition of a diftindl
letter ga would be an improper and inconvenient
mode of expreffing the nafal found, and that 'we
cannot do bettd" than adopt the Indian method
of diftinguifhing it, in Sanferit, Cbinefe, and
Verjian words, by a point above the letter ; as
in Sinba^ a lion, Cdnb't, the name of an illuf-
trious Emperor, and Sdmdti, a houfehpld.

This too is an abbreviation or fubftitute, at
the clofe of a fyllable, for the Jlnng afpirate, and
may be diftinguilhed in the middle of a word
by a hyphen, as in dub-dbuy pain, though it
feems often to refemble the Arabian ha, which
gives only a more- forcible found to thp vowel.

OF ASIATICK WORD&* s', 9

which precedes it, as in bhicmabt fcience. It is
well known,, that, wheii fuch Arahick words are
ufed in conftruclion, afpirate of the firft

noun has the found of ta ; I?ut, as the letter re-
mains unaltered, it fliotild, I think, be prefervcd
in our characters, and expreffed either' by two
points above it, as in Arabick, or by an accentual
mark ; fince if we write Zuhdahu' ImtilCf or, the
Flower of the Fealmy with a comma to denote
the fuppreflion of the dlif, every learner will
know, that the firft word fliould be pronounced
Zubdat. The hd is often omitted by us, when
. we write Perjian in Englijb letters, but ought
invariably to be inferted, as in Sbdhnamab’,
fince the afpiratibn is very perceptibly founded
in the true pronunciation of dcTg^j, rubdhy and
other fimilar words. The Sanferit character
before us has the fingular property of being in-
terchangeable, by certain rules, both with ra,
and fa ; in the fame manner as the Sylva of the
•piomans was formed from the /Eolick word hylva,
find as arbos was ufed in old Latin for arbor.

• Wc come now to the firft proper confonant
of the Indian fyftem, in which a feries of letters,
formed in the throat ne^ar the root of the tongue,
properly takes the lead. This letter has the found
pf our k and c in the words king and cannibal ;

iso ON THE ORTHOGRAPHY

but there will be great convenience in expreffing
it uniformly by the fecotid of thofe marks, what-
ever be the vowel following it. The Arabs,
and perhaps all nations defeended from Sem,
have a remarkable letter founded near the palate
with a hard preiTure, not unlike the cawing of a
raven, as in the word Kafm ; and for this par-
ticular found the redundance of our own alpha-
bet fupplies us with an ufeful f)'mbol : the com-
mon people in Hbejdz and Egypt confound it,
indeed, with the firft letter of Gahr, and the
Perjians only add to that letter the hard palatine
found of the Arabian kdf ; but, if we diftinguifh
it invariably by we lhall find the utility of
appropriating^ our c to the notation of the Indian
letter now before us. The third letter of the
Roman alphabet was probably articulated like
the kappa of the Greeks ; and we may fairly
fuppofe, that Cicero and Cithara were pronounced
alike at Rome and at Athens : the djb apply
this letter uniformly to the fame found, as in cae
and cejn ; and a little pradlice will render fuch
words as cildb and cinnara familiar to our eyes.

We hear much of afpirated letters; but the
only proper afpirates (thofe 1 mean, in whicji a
llrong breathing is diftindly heard after the coii-
fonants) are to be found in the languages of f««

OF ASIATICK WORDS. 281

Hia\ unlefs the word cachexy, which our me-
dical writers have borj^wed from the Greeks be
thought an exception to the rule : this afpiration
may be diftinguiflied by a. comma, as the letter
before us is expreflcd in the word c’lia?iitra, a
fpade. The Arabian, Verjian, and Tufcan af-
pirate, which is formed by a harfh protrufion of
the breath, while the confonant is roughly arti-
culated near the root of the tongue, may be
written as in the word makhzen, a trcafury.

n .

Whatever vowel follow this letter, it Ihould
conftantly be exprelTed as in the Vv'ords gul, a
flower, anA gil, clay; and we may ohferve, as
before, that a little ulc will reconcile us to this
deviation from our irregular fyflem. The Ger-
mans, v.’hofe pronunciation ajijpears to be more
confiftent .than our own, would fcarce under-
ftand the Latin name of their own country, if
an Englijlman wrere to pronounce it, as he w’as
taught at fchool.

■^T

The proper afpirate of the laft letter, as in the
word Raghuvanfa : the Perjians and Arabs pro-
nounce their ghain with a bur in the throat, and
a tremulous motion of the tongue, which gives
it a found refembling that of r, as it is pronounced
in Northumberland', but it is in truth « compound

282 ON THE ORTHOGRAfHt

guttural, though frequently exprefled by a flmplc
letter, as in Gaza, which fhould be written Ghaz-
zdbf a city of Palejlinc, and in gazelle, as the
French naturalifts call .the ghazal, or antelope, of
the Arabians. The Perjian word migb, a cloud,
is meg'ba in Sanjerit ; as mijh, a fheep, appears
alfo to be derived from mejba, by that change of
the long vowels, which generally diftinguifhes
the Iranian from the Indian pronunciation.

>3

This is the nafal palatine, which I have already
propofed to denote by a point above the letter n ;
fince the addition of a ^ would create confufion,
and often fuggeft the idea of a different fyllable.
Thus ends the firft ferics of Ndgar'i le tters, con-
fifting of the bard and foft guttural, each attend-
ed by its proper afpirate, and followed by a 7iafal
of the fame clafs*; which elegant arrangement is
continued, as far as poffible, through the San--
jerit fyftem, and feems conformable to the beau-
tiful analogy of nature.

z

The next is a feries of compound letters, as
moft grammarians confider them, though fome
^hold them to be fimple founds articulated near
the palate. The firft of them has no diftindl
fign in oyr own alphabet, but is expreffed, as in
the word China ^ by two letters, which are cer-

OF ASIATICK WORDS. 283

tainly not its component principles; it might,
perhaps, be more properly denoted, as it is in
the great work of M. D’Herbelot, by tjb\
but the inconvenience of ‘retaining our own
fymbol will be lefs than that of introducing a
new combination, or inventing, after the ex-
ample of Dr. Franklin, a new charafter.
China is a Sanfcrit word ; and it will be con-
venient fo to write it, though I feel an inclination,
to exprefs it otherwife.

The fame compofition with a ftrong breath-
ing articulated after it. Harfli as it may I’eem,
we cannot, if we continue the former fymbol,
avoid expreffing .this found, as in the word
cb'handaSy metre.

This too leems to have been confidered by
the Hindus as a limple palatine, but appears in
truth to be the complex exprefiion of dzh: per-
haps the fame letter may> by a fmall difference
of articulation, partake of two different founds.
This at leaft we may obferve, that the letter
under confideration is confounded, as a Ample
found, with ya, and, as a compoilnd, with za^
one of its conflituents : thus the ydfm'm of Ara-
ida is by us called jq/minf while the fame man is

VOL. I. X

<284 ON THE ORTHOGRAPHY

Giorgi 2LLRome and Zorzi at Venice ; or (to give
an example of both in a fingle word) yug, or
junSiion, at Bdndres, is jug in Bengal, and was
pronounced zug, or, in the nominative, zugoti
at Athens. We Ihould, however, invariably cx-
prefs the letter before us by ja.

The Arabian letters d’hald, d ad, and d hd are
all pronounced in Perfia like za, with a fort of
lifp from an attempt to give them their genuine
found : they may be well expreffed as in fluxion-
ary characters, by a feries of points above them,
z, z, z.

The preceding letter afpirated, as in the word
y’hqPja, a fifli.

This is the Jeeond nafld compofed of the
former and the letter ya. As the Italian word
agnello and our onion contain a compofition of
n and y, they Ihould regularly be written anyello
and onyon ; and the Indian found diflfers only in
the greater nafality of the firfl; letter, which may
be diftinguiflied, as before, by a point. A very
ufeful Sanferit root, fignifying to knoiv, begins
with the letter ja followed by this compound
najal, and fliould be written jnya j whence jnycina,
knowledge; but this h<ir£h combination is in

OF asiatick words.

285

Bengal foftened into gya : it is exprefled by a
diftin£l character, which ftands laft in the plate
annexed *.

In the curious work entitled Tohjahiil Hind,
or The Prcfcnt of this is xhefourLh feries

of Sanfcrii letters ; but in general it has the third
rank, more agreeably, 1 think, to the analogy of
the fyftem. This clafs is pronounced with au
inflexion of the tongue towards the roof of the
mouth, which gives an obtufe found to the con-
fonant, and may be diftinguiflied by an accent
above it. The firft is the Indian ta, as in the
word cot'ara, a rotten tree, and is commonly ex-
prefled in writings by four points, but

would be better marked by the Arabian ta,
which it very nearly refembles, ■*

fe

The fame with a ftrong breathing after it, as
In Vaicunfha, or umvearied, an epithet of Vipmii.

A remarkable letter, which the Muf imans
call the Indian dal ; and exprefs alfo by four
points over it ; but it Ihould, by analogy to the
others, be diflinguifhed by an accentual mark as
in the word dan'da, punifhment. When the

* Plate II.

X 2

26 § ON THE ORTHOGRAPHY

tongue is inverted with a flight vibratory mo-
tion, this letter has a mixture of the ra, with
which it is often, but incorredtly, confounded ;
as in the common word her for berUy great. It
refembles the Arabian dad.

¥

The preceding letter afpirated, as in D'hdcdy
Improperly pronounced Dacca. In the fame
manner may be written the Arabian dbd, but
without the comma, fince its afpiratc is lefs dif-
tindlly heard than in the Indian found.

This is the nafal of the third feries, and form-
ed by a fimilar inverfion of the tongue : in
Sanferit words it ufually follows the letters ra
saxfS. fha (as in Hrdbmcn'a, derived from Bra}man\
the Supreme Being ; Fijhniiy a name of his pre-
ferving power) ; or precedes the other letters of
the third clafs.

v5

Here begins the fourth feries, on which we
have little more to remark. The firft letter of
this clafs is the common ta, or bard dental, if it
may not rather be confidered as a lingual.

?l

Its afpirate, which ought to be written with
a comma, as in tlic word Afwatt' ha, the Indian

OF ASIATfCK WORDS.

1287

fig-tree, left it be confounded by our countrymen
with the yfrabiiin found in thurayya^ the Pleiads^
which is precifcly the EiigliJIj afpiration in
think ; a found, which the Pvrjians and French
cannot ealily articulate : in Perjian it lliould be
exprelfed by s with a point above it.

The fojt dental in Dh’old, or Deity.

The fame afpirated as in D' henna, juftice,
virtue, or piety. We muft alfo diftinguifh this
letter by a comma from the Arabian in dhahab,
gold ; a found of difficult articulation in France
and Pdjiay which we write thus very improper-
ly, inftead of retaining the genuine Anglofaxon
letter, or expreffing it, as we might with great
convenience/ dhtis.

The fimple nafal^ founded by the teeth with
a little affiftance from the noftrils, but not fo
much as in many French and Perjian words.
Both this mfdl and the former occur in the
narnc Ndrdyen'a, or dwelling in water.

Next come the labials in the fame order;
and iirft the hard labial pa, formed by a ftrong
compreffion of the lips; which fo ill fuits thr-

268

ON THE ORTHOGRAPHY

configuration of an Arabian mouth, that It can-
not be articulated by an Arab without much
effuri.

The proper nfjnratc of pa, as in the word
f.h'phn J, but oiren pronounced like our /i;r, as
in Ji /a/u\{\c.\d of P'Lk’L:, fruit. In truth the /lz
is a diltind: letter ; and our pha, which in h-i-
p;li/h is redundant, fhould be appropriated to the
notation of this Indian labial.

The fqft labial in Budd’ha, wife, and the
fecond letter in moll alphabets ufed by Euro-
pe am which begin with a yowcl, a labial, a
palatine, and a lingual : it ought ever to be
diftinguilhed in, Ndgari by a tranfverfe bar,
though the copy ills often omit this ufeful dif-
tindion.

The Indian afpirate of the preceding letter,
as in the word ' / djha, or a fpoken dialed. No
comma is nccelfary in this notation, lince the
found of bba cannot be confounded with any
in our own language.

This is the laft nafal, as In Menii^ one of the
firft created beings according to the Indians : it

OF ASIATIGK WORDS.

is formed by clofing the lips entirely, whilft the
breath pafles gently through the nofe ; and here
ends iW regular arrangement of the Ndgarl
letters. Another feries might have been added,
namely, 7^, za, zha, which are in the fame
proportion as ta, tha, da, dha, and the reft ; but
the two laft founds are not ufed in Sajifcrit,

Then follows a fet of letters approaching to
the nature of vowels : the firft of them feems in
truth to be no more than our 'third fhort vowel
beginning a diphthong, and may, therefore, be
thought a fuperfiuous charadler : lince this union,
however, produces a kind of confonant articulated
near the palate, it is ranked by many among
the confonants, and often confounded with ja :
hence Tarniuid, a facred river In’ India, called
alfo the Daughter oj the Sun, is written Joniancs
by the Greeks, and Jumna, lefs properly, by the
liiiglijh.

3

The two liquids na and ma, one of which is
a lingual and the other a labial, are kept apart,
in order to preferve the analogy of the fyftem j
and the other two are introdueed between the
two fernivowels : the firft of thefe is ra, as in
Ra MA, the conqueror of Sildn.

25»0

ON THE OI^THOGRAPHY

The fecond is la, in Lanca, another name of
that iiland both in Tihuty and in India. A de-
fcd in the organs of the common Bengalefe
often caufes a confufion between thefe two- li-
quids, and even the found of na is frequently
fubftituted for the letter before us.

When this character correfponds, as it fome-
times does in Saiifirit, with our zcy/, it is in fadl
onrf fth Jhort vowel preceding another in form-
ing a diphthong, and might eafily be fpared in
our fyftem of letters ; but, when it has the found
of va, it is a labial formed by linking the lower
lip againft the u{)per teeth, and niight thus be
arranged in a feries of proportionals, pUyfa, ha,
va. It cannot eafily be pronounQ.cd in this
manner by the inhabitants of Be?igid and fome
other provinces, who confound it with ha, from
which it ought carefully to be dillinguilhed ;
fmee we cannot conceive, that in fo perfedi a
fyftem as the Sanferit, there could ever have
been two fymbols for the fame found. In fadi
the Montes i arveti of our ancient Geographers
were fo named from Parveta, not Parbeta, a
mountain. Xhe waw o'l the Arabs is always a
vowel, either feparate or coalefcing with another
in the form of a diphthong; but in Perfian

OF ASIATICK WORDS.

291

words it is a confonant, and pronounced like
our va, though with rather lefs force.

Then follow three Jihilants, the hrft of which
is often, very inaccurately, confounded with the
fecond, and even with the third ; it belongs to that
clafs of confonants, which, in the notation here
propofed, are cxprelfed by acute accents above
them to denote an inverfion of the tongue
towards the palate, w'hence this letter is called in
India the palatine fa. It occurs in a great
number of words, and fliould be written as in
paldsa, the name of a facred tree with a very
brilliant flower. In the faipe manner may be
noted the slid of the Arabs and Hebrews, which
laft it refembles in ftiape, and probably refembled
in found; except that in Casniir ami the pro-
vinces bordering on l^efia it is hardly diftin-
guilhable from the following letter.

The fecond is improperly written flja in our
EngUJh fyftem, and cha, ftill more erroneoufly,
in that of the French ; hut the form generally
known may be retained, to avoid the incon-
venience of too great a change even from wrong
to right. This letter, of which fa and ba are
not the component parts, is formed fo far back
in the head, that the Indians call it a cere-

292

ON THE ORTHOGRAPHY

bral : either it was not articulated by the Greeks,
or they chofe to exprefs it by their Xi ; fince
of the Ferjian word ArdaJFir they have formed
Arlaxcrxcs.

The dental fa, which refembles the Hebrew
letter of the fame found, and, like that, is often
jniftaken by ignorant copyifts for the

The ftrong breathing ba, but rather mifplaced

in the Ndgar) fyftem ; fince it is the fecond

element of articulate founds : the very hard

breathing of the Arabs may be w;ell exprelfed by

doubling the mark of afpiration, as in Mubham-

med, or by an accent above it in the manner of

the long vQwels, as in Ahmed.

<

The Indian fyftem of letters clofes with a
compound of ca and JJoa, as in the word park-
fa, ordeal : it is analogous to our x, a fuper-
fluous character, of no ufe, that I know of, except
in algebra. I’he Bengalefe give it the found of
cya, or of our k in fuch words as kind and fy
but w’e may conclude, that the other pronun-
ciation is very ancient, fince the old Fcrfians ap-
pear to have borrowed their word Raejhah from
the Racjha, or demon of the Hindus, which is
written with the letter before us. The Greeks

OF ASIATIGK WORDS.

293

rendered this letter by their Kbi, changing Tiac-
or the fouth, into ‘Dobbin.

All the founds ufed in .Sanfcrit, Arahich^ Prr-
Jion^ and Hindi, are arranged fyftematically in
the table prefixed to this dilfertation * ;.and the
fingular letter of the Arabs, which they call din,
is placed immediately before the confonants. It
might have been clafled, as the modcrh y^zes
pronounce it, ’ among the flrong nafals of the
Indians-, but, in Arabia and Verjia, it has a
very difl'erent found, of which no verbal de-
feription can give an idea, and may not impro-
perly be called a naj'al vozvcl: it is uniformly
diitinguifhed by a ciramipcx cither above a fhort
vowel or over the letter preceding a long one,
as ihn, learni'ng, ddlim, learned.

Agreeably to tlie preceding analyfis of letters,
if I were tu adopt a new mode (>f KngliJlj ortho-
graphy, I Ihould write Addifon's deferiptron of
the angel in the tollowing manner, dillinguifh-
ing the Jiniplr breathing, or firft clement, which
W'e cannot invariably omit, by a perpendicular
line above our firft or fecond vowel :

So Iiwcn Mil b'di divain camand,

Tdifjn tpiiipofls fliccs a gilti land.

Sea ckZ av lot or pci liritanya pafV,

Calm and iiiip. hi tlraiv*z dliir fyuryas blaH:,

And, phzM uh’almamz firdcrz tu perform,

Kaids ia did Iiweriwind and dairccls dhi Harm.

* riate !•

ON THE ORTHOGRAPHY

*94

This mode of writing poetry would be the
touchftone of bad rhymes, which the eye as well
as the ear would inftantly detedt ; as in the firft
couplet of this defeription, and even in the laft,
according to the common pronunciation of the
word perform. I clofe this paper with fpecimens
of oriental writing, not as fixed ftandards of or-
thography, which no individual has a right to
fettle, but as examples of the method, which I
recommend j and, in order to relieve the dry-
nefs of the fubjeft, I annex tranflations of all
but the firft fpecimen, which I referve for an-
other occafion.

I.

Four Dijlichsfrom the Sr’ibha'gawat
Mr. Wilkins’s Orthography,

ahamevasamevagre nanyadyat sadasat param
pafcludaham yadctachcha yovascelhyet'a sofmyaham

rSetertham yat pratecyct'a na pratccyet'a chat^nanee
tadveedyad atmano mdyani yathu bhafo yathd tamah

yatha mahantce bliootanec bhootcflioochchavachefliwanoS
prSvcclhtanyapr'avceflitancc tutha tefhoo natelhwaliam

ctavadeva jeejnafyam tllttwa jeejuasoonatmanah
'anwaya vyatccrckabhyam yat fyat sarvatra sarvadi.

* Sec riate IV, The I/ ttcrs art' in Platt II.

^

OF ASIATICS WORDS.

295

This wonderful paflage I fhould exprefs in the
following manner:

ahamevafamevagre nanyadpt fadafat param
pas'chadaham yadetachcha ybvas'illiyeta fbfmyaham

rTturt’ham yat pratiyeta na pratiyeta chatmani
tadvidyadatmanb mayatn yat’ha bhalb yat’ha tamah

yat’ha mahanti bhutani bhutefliuchchavachefhwanK
pravifli'tanyapravifli tani tat’ha tefliu na tcihwaham

cta\’adeva jijnyafyam taftwa jijnyafunatmanah
anwaya vyatirccabhyam yat fyat fervatra fervada.

II.

Mo'ha Mudgara.

The title of this fine piece properly fignifics
The Mallet of Dclufion or Folly, but may be
tranflated A Remedy for Dijlraelioti of Mind : it
is compofed in regular anapallick verl'es accord-
ing to the ffridcfl: rules of Greek prolbdy, but
in rhymed couplets, two of which here form a
s Idea.

*r“3TtttTrJT3't^(§3;i

5t3;n

,06

ON THE ORTHOGRAPHY

^<3^* 11

t

^ m^" fis” i3’ nsR^" -Wo’ ^ I
??f3?1^3C»tt(l3JiT 35iPl^Jt»|f5j1’U

^i^?Jirii<[3?35I^pTo ’I’UlSJ'RIp^” ^!1

^W^11l!fet5W3jffl: TO^jlSRWll

o^sptfSs; »F^35* ^tj5l5it5f^l5^ H

OF ASIATICK WORDS.

2>r

T?* 'itr 'iKr \\

II ' *

SlC.^StTrCK^tra.l^U"'’ Tt’llPiSFipiIlf ; J

"i-fjrotsrtT ^3it^^5ii3t=rii

5isi^«i53r!i!i; 11

r*Rrtir \

^RtraiHT C3!if n

mud'ha jalu'hi dhanagamataflinam
curu teiiubuddhimanah fuvitrifhnam
yallabhafe nijacannopattam
vittam tena vinodaya chittam.

ca tava canta cafte putrah
fanfcaroyam ati'vavicbittrah
cafya twam va cuta ayata
ftattwam chintava tadidam bhratah.

ma curu dhanajanayauvanagarvam
harati nimcftiat calab farvam
mayamayamidamac’hilam hitwa
brehmapadam previs'as'u viditwa.

1^8

ON THE ORTHOGRATttir

nalinidalagatajalavattaralam
tadvajjivanamatis’aya chapalam
cfhenainiha fajjana fangatircca
bhawati bhawarnavatarane nauca.
anganfi galitaiii palitam mund'am
dantavihin'am jatatn tund'am
caradhritacatnpitasobhitadand'am
tadapi namunchatyas'a bhand'am.

yavajjananam tavanmaran'am
tavajjanani jat hare s'ayanam
iti fanfare fp’hut'atara dofhah
cat’hamiha manava tava fantoftiah.
dinayaminyau fayam pratah
s is iravafantau p u naray atah
ciilah cridati gach’hatyayu
lladapi na munchatyasavayuh.
furavaraniapdiratarutalavafali
s'ayyii bhutalamajinam vafah •
fervaparigraliabliugaty%ah
cafya fuc’ham na caroti viragah.
s'atran mitre piitre bandhau
ma cum yatnara vigrahafandliau
bhava famachittah fcrvatra twam
vanch’hafyachirad yadi vifhnut\\am.

aih taculachalafeptafamudra
brehmapufandarad^nacararudrah
natwam naham nayam loca
fiadapi cimart’ham criyate s dcah.

OF ASIATICK WORDS.

S99

twayi mayi chanyatraico vifhnur
vyart’hain cupyafi niayyafahiflinuh
fervam pas'ycUmanyatmanam
frrvatrotfrija bhedajnyanam.

valaftavat crld as'afta
ftarun'aftdvat tarunlraftah
vriddhaftavach chintamagnah
pereme brahman i cdpi nalagnah.

dwadas'a pnjj’haticiibhiras'clhah
s'ifhyanara cat’hitubhyupadt^ah
yeflidm naillia caroti vivcoain
telham cah curutamatirccam.

4 verbal Tranflation.

1. Rcftrain, deluded mortal, thy thirft of ac-
quiring wealth ,• excite an averfion jrom it ia
ihy body, undernmding, and inclination : with
the riches* which thou acquired by thy own ac-
tions, w ith thefe gratify thy foul.

2. Who is thy wife ; who t];y fon ; how ex-
tremely wonderful is even this world j whofe
creature thou a!fo art\ whence thou earned —
meditate on this, O brother, and again on this.

3. Make no boad of opulence, attendants,
youth ; all thejc time fnatches away in the twink-
ling of an eye : checking all this illufion like
Maya, fet thy heart on the foot of Brahme,
fpeedily gaining knowledge of him.

VOL. I. y

300 ON THE ORTHOGRAPHY

4. As a drop of water moves tremulous on
the lotos-leaf, thus is human life inexpreflibly
flippery : the company of the virtuous endures
here but for a moment ; that is our fhip in
pafling the ocean of the world.

5. The body is tottering ; the head, grey j
the mouth, toothlefs : the delicate ftaff trembles
in the hand, which holds it : ftill the flaggon of
covet oufnefs remains unemptied.

6. How foon are zve born ! how foon dead !
how long lying in the mother’s womb ! How
great is the prevalence of vice in this world !
Wherefore, O man, haft thou complacency here
below ?

7. Day and night, evening and morning,
winter and fpring depart and return : time fports,
life pafles on ; yet the wind of e.xpcdtation con-
tinues unreftrainecl.

t

8. To dwell under the manfion of the high
Gods at the foot of a tree, to have the ground
for a couch, and a hide for vefturc ; to renounce
all extrinfick enjoyments,— whom doth not fuch
devotion fill with delight ?

9. Place not thy afted;ions too ftrongly on foe
or friend, on a fon or a kinfinan, in war or in
peace: be thol^ even-minded towards all, if
thou defireft fpeedily to* attain the nature of
Vishnu.

OF ASIATICS WORDS. 301

10. Eight original mountains, and feven fcas,
Brahme, Indra, the Sun, and Rudra, thefe
are permanent: not thou, not I, not this or that
people ; wherefore then fhould anxiety be raifcd
in our minds ?

11. In thee, in me, in every other being is
Vishnu ; fooliflily art thou offended with me,
not bearing my approach ; fee every foul in thy
own foul; in all places lay afide a notion of
diverfity.

1 2. The boy fo long delights in his ]>lay ; the
youth fo long purfues his damfcl j the old man
fo long broods over unealinefs ; that no one me-
ditates on the Supreme Being.

13. This is the inftrudlion of learners deliver-
ed in twelve diflindl ftanzas : what more can be
done with fuch, as this wqrk fills not with
devotion J

III.

The following elegy, which is chofen as a fpe-
cimcn oi Arabick was compofed by a learn-

ed Philofopher and Scholar, Mi'r Mu 11 a mi-
med Husain, before his journey to Haida^
rdbdd with Richard Johnson, Efq.

md tinja Id dnja dllati y
jdat ilayya dial badhar

* Plate V. and Plate III.
Y 3

303

ON THE ORTHOGRAPHT

alnaumu Mhkalajafnahd
wadlkalhu idra bihi dldhadr

riWadat dsunida kaumibu
Jatakballafat tninba dlgbarar
nazadt kbaldkbihh'i Icbd
Alla tujAjiba bifljar

tfjlxu Alt arikd lid'biilmahin
fakadat hibA iiajvia Alfabbar
Ji lailabbi had cabbalat
biJliivAdibA jajna Alkamar

ica tcrai AlgbamA/na cciAjmuUn
Icrdi Ahmjuma dial AJhar
li’hci uyi'inon liljemdi
Alai badayikiba Alziihar
wiu'ilbcrku ychjhm tbegruhu
djabAu' libatica algbiyar
xvadlrddu c/ida yukbarriku
Alds'mAkba Ji s iimmi Alb ajar
fabaxi'at iudaiiikunl ivakad
b'adbarat ituiki min kbafar
xcaAldcmu bclla kbududaba
u'ajukui riyad'An lilnad'bar

wateneffafat id b calhnnat
zvaramat fuze Adi biAlJbcrar
d ballat luAAlibinid dlai
Ah jedda h Azmu AJfaJar

kaLit Adbabta fuzcAdanA
zvaAdbakiabu b erra Alfakar

OF ASIA.TICK WORDS. 303

tadsi diidmera lUhawai
u'atutiuu nJs-ih'aca dlghudar
zvatcduru min dnl'in' ib.i
drdiii xvamd tmhn dlmckirr
yiiummi tesirii bica //Ibibbdru .

■LvaUirab aiv Uumii Inluvr

md dhd dfddaca jaidabon
baiila dlbilddi Jhvm did ajar
adlijla dd'blda dljcld
zvafidsita drama dlbdjlhr

dm kad nu’hdlajhudrand
yd zvdih'a kbillhi kad tiafar
fdrb'm dial kalbi dlladbi
I'dnui ‘dlfulimni'd zvamd kadar.

The Tranflation.

1. Neyer, oh ! never fliall I forget the fair
one, v.'ho came to my tent with timid circum-
fpedion :

2. Sleep fat heavy on her eye-lids, and her
heart fluttered with fear.

3. She had marked the dragons of her tribe
(the feniimh), and had difmilTed all dread of
danger from them ;

4. She had laid afidc the rings, which ufed
to grace her ankles; left the found of them Ihould
c.xpofe her to calamity :

804 . ON THE ORTHOGJIAPHY

5. She deplored the darknefs of the way,
which hid from her the inorning-ftar.

6. It was a night, when the eye-lafhes of the
moon were tinged with the black powder (Al-
cohol ) of the gloom :

y. A night, in which thou mighteft have feen
the clouds, like camels, eagerly grazing on the
ftars;

8. While the eyes of heaven wept on the
bright borders of the fky ;

9. The lightning* difplayed his fliining teeth,
with wonder at this change in the firmament j

1 o. And the thunder almoft burft the ears of
the deafened rocks.

1 1. She was defirous of embracing me, but,
through modefty, declined my embrace.

12. Tears bedewed her cheeks, and, to my
eyes, watered a bower of rofes.

13. When fhe fpake, her panting fighs blew
flames into my heart.

1 4. She continued expoftulating with me on
my excelTive delire of travel.

15. ‘ Thou haft melted my heart, Ihe faid,
\ and made it fe4 inexpreflible anguilh.

16. ‘ Thou art perverfd in thy conduct to her
^ who loves thee, and pbfequious to thy guileful
f advifer.

OF ASIATICK WORDS. 305

(

17. * Thou goeft- round from country to

* country, and art never pleafed with a fixed

* refidence.

18. ‘ One while the fea&roll with thee ; and,
' another while, thou art agitated on the fliore.

1 9. ‘ What fruit, but painful fatigue, can arifc
‘ from rambling over foreign regions ?

20.. ‘ Ifaft thou afl'ociated thyfelf with the

* wild antelopes of the defert, and forgotten the

* tame deer ?

21. ‘ Art thou weary then of our neighbour --
‘ hood ? O wo ^to him, who flees from his be-

* loved ! . .

22. * Have pity at length on my afflided
‘ heart, which feeks relief and cannot obtain
‘it.’

#

Each couplet of the original confifts of two
Dimeter Limbicks^ and muft be read in the
proper cadence.

IV.

As a fpecimen of the old Perjian language and
charader, I fubjoin a very curious palTage
from the Zend^ whi^^h was communicated to
me by Bauman the fon of'BAHRAM, a na-
tive of Tezdy and; as his name indicates, a
Pdrs't : he wrote the paflfage from memory j
Once his books ui Pablavi and Deri, are not

S 06 ON THE ORTHOQRAPHY

yet brought to Bengal. I It is a fuppofed an-
fwer of I'zAD or Qop to Zera'htusht,
who had afked by what means mankind could
attain happinefs.

Az pid u mad che ce pid u mad Jie khojhnud
Fid bargiz bihijht ne vimd', be jdyi cirfab bizah
vintd: mehdn rd be dzarm nic ddnd, cehdn rd be
hich gunah maydzdrid : aj khijlmvendi dervijl}
nang meddrid : ddd u venddd i khdliki yedid bch
car ddrid ; az rijtdkhizi ten padn endijheh ne-
mdy'id ; mabddd ce ajhii ten khijh ra duzakhi cu-
riid, va dnche be khijhten najbdkad be cajdn ma-
pajendid va ma cun'td : hercbc. be. git) cunid be
mainii az ai'ieh pazirab dyed *.

A Verbal Tranflation.

“ If you do that with which your father and
mother are not pleafcd, you (hall never fee
heaven; inftead of good fpirits, you flxa'l fee evil
beings : behave with honcfty and with refpe£l
to the great ; and on no account injure the
mean : hold not your poor relations a rcpi'oach
to you : imitate the juftice and goodnefs of the
Only Creator: meditat*^ on the refurreSion of
the future body) left you make your fouls and
bodies the inhabitant's of hell ; and whatever

• Plate VII. The Zend Letters are in Plate IH.

/ o/ / /Kf. ‘ioih

v, »

)

— ^ I * ^

• •

tA

Q * i f * 1 1 *

‘ U * RU

— vv. *i.j_3!2lJ

‘I t»^*i ♦ ^«iJ

— ♦ uOU^

ii * fff OcrUL^ f • Utik^

r-^ ^ W=> <1 ‘

OF ASIATICK WORDS.

307

would be unpleafmg- to. yourfelves, think not
that plcafmg to others^ ar,d do it not : whatever
good you do on earth,' for that you fliall receive a
retribution in heaven.”

It will, perhaps, be fufpeded (and the language
itfelf mayconlirinthefufpicion), that thisdodlrine
has been taken from a religion very different
both in age and authority, from that of Zera'h-
TUSIIT.-

V.

The follownng ftory in modern Perjian was
given to me by Mirza AbduTrahhi'm of
Isfahan : it "feems extraded frooi one of the
many poems on the loves of Mejnu'n and
Laie i, the Romeo and Joliet of the Eaft.
Each verfe confifts of a Cretick foot followed
by two t Cboriambif or a tboriambus and a
Molojfus.

308

ON THE ORTHOGRAPHY

0^.'^

te, JC'^

5U< jy
jy jy ^iLv.

•»

f

JLrw(l,i/,Lj;;TylJ

yj ,

I./ <-^AA.*l^

*

J

c;l‘

•*

if 0^3

r^). j4'\Sy*^

C/>/y 0;^J> ^Cf
(J^ ->3 wClt V^tjsliy

C/<Kv^yi

OF ASIATICK WORDS.

309

A)

yl }j, jXJ^> f^_,) ;/*

i

uT ;j

^/■J5 L. Ir wCj I /J'/'

|<> -^u'^ 0^

*1/ w-^.j»yl JJ

cbo-C ( ;iy ^

(/y^ f/j

•• ••

lii \S^j-.-^\j

» . **

«•

pr^ 1^ '^JuJP’fy}

c/_l,r.,^ (/Ki^

.

" "N

310

CN THE ORTHOGRAPHY

Shtrmajli feri pijtgni diem
perverejh ydjtehi ddmeni gbem

dbi rang o rokhi laiUyi jonun
kbdli rokbfdrcbi hdmun Mcjm'ui

ydji cbm rdb hi cdpdncbi ifik
djildn Jhiid bideri khundn ifik

her fereJJ} fiakbsi jonm Jdyahjicaml
kih’ebi ddjbiki djb gafit boland

der and) ber t'araf t gbaughd Jhiid
nakli u nokli inrjdlis-bd Jhud

hud dmiri bidrab vdld fom
sahihi micnat b fervat * bijcbdn

lore Uizi gbemi bcjrdn didab
pur guU ddgbi mob'ahbat chidab

didab d'er tifliyi khbd si'izi ferdk
talkbiyi z<%hri ferdk efi bimezdk

ydft cbim kis's'ebi dn derd figal
card jerrndn bigbiddmi der liul

ceb siiyi najd kadam Jdz zijer.

Jljau beb tdjil r avail cbim s'eiscr

dn ceb dil bordab zi Mejniin bi nigab
heb berem zud biydver bemrdb.

raft b dxwd gbuldmac der b'dl
Laili dn pddiJiJabi midci jenuil

* The reader will fiipply the point over /, when it fta
for ii.

OF ASIATICK WORDS;

311

beh gbularnt digarejh Jlmd fermdn
ceh to hem JJjau bi suyi dajht ravdn

janibi zinati drbdhi jonun
Jbemi pur ni'iri mob'abbat 'Mejniin

ziid aver herein dn sukbtab rd
(in jigarmzi gbem dndukhtab rd

raft 0 bergaJJji ghuldmac chu nigdh
vdliyi cifivari iJJjkeJh hemrdh

card lira chu nazar niardi amir
did zdr '/ hi gbemi ijl'h dsir

her fereJJj fiahbs i jonhn cardah vat'en
zjkbnti bejrcin bi teiic.p} piraben

milyi fer ber.bcdfnejh gajblah kobd

muzab dz dbilahi pd her pa

• •

Jljdnab dz kbari mughildn her miijfi
khirkab dz rigi biydhdn her auJJj

goft edi gomJJ.Hidabi vddiyi gbem
bich kbzodbi ceb' ttmenndl debem

ferferdzat cunam dz micnat 6 jdb
Lain drem biberet khdt'er kbvedb

goft rit n't ceb baiideji batid
zerreh rd hem nazari bd khoi Jhid

goft kbwdhi ceb com rdjt higii
fairi dn s'afb'abi rokhfdri nicu
yd neddri bijemdlejh n^aiU
rdjl berguyi bi jdni Lail't

<12

ON THE ORTHOGRAPHY

gqft cat kodvahi drbdbi cerem
zerrabi kbdci deret tdji ferem

her dilem derd zi Laili cdfiji
kbwdbejhi va^l zi bi infdfljl

balm kborfendiyi in jozvi h'akir
has buvad pertavi dz mibri monir

goft 0 gardid siiy) dajht ravdn
didab girydn 6 mizbab djl^cfipdii

The Tranflation.

1 . Tbe man, wbo bad Inebriated hlinfelf with
inllk from the nipple of Anguifli, who had been
nouriflied in the lap of Affliftion,

2. Mejnu'n, mad with the bright hue and
fair face of Laili, himfelf a dark mole on the
cheek of the defert>

3. Having found the way to the manfion of
love, became fxed like the threlhold on the
door of love’s palace.

4. Over his head the form of Madnefs had
caft her ftiadow : the tale of his .paffion was
loudly celebrated.

5. Among the Arabs a tumult arofe on all
fides : the relation of his adventures was a deflert
in their alTemblies. •

6. A powerful Prince reigned in Arabia, pof*
fefling worldly magnificence and riches :

OF ASIATICK WORDS. 31S

7. He had feen the depredations of Grief
through abfence from a beloved objed ; he had
plucked many a blackrfpotted flower from the
garden of \oyQ.

8. Even in his infancy he had felt the pain of
feparation: the bitter tafte of that poifon re-
mained on his palate.

9. When he learned the ftory of that afflided
lover, he inftantly gave an order to a flave,

10. Saying, ‘ Make thy head like thy feet in
‘ running towards Najd go with celerity, like a
‘ violent wind :

1 1 . ‘ Bring fpeedily with thee to my prefence
‘ Her, who has* ftolen the heart of MEjNu'if

* with a glance.’

12. The ftripling ran, and in a fliort time
brought Laili, that Emprefs iu the dominion
of beauty. •

13. To another flave the Prince gave this
order : ‘ Run thou alfo into the defert,

14. Go to that ornament of frantick lovers,

* Mejnu^n, the illumined taper of love.

15. ‘ Bring quickly before me that inflamed

‘youth, that heart-confumed anguifh-pierced
‘ lover.’ . •

16. The boy went, andeeturned, in the twink-
ling of an eye, accompanied by the ruler in the
territories of love.

514

ON THE ORTHOGRAPHY

17 . When the Prince looked at him, he
' • » «

beheld a wretch in bondage to the mifery of
defire.

18. Madnfefs had fixed her abode on this
head : he was clothed, as with a veft, with the
wounds of reparation.

19. His locks flowed, like a mantle, over his
body : his only fandal was the callus of his feet.

20. In his hair ftuck a comb of Arabian
thorns : a robe of fand from the defert covered
his back.

21. ‘ O THOU, faid the VrincCy v^ho hast been

* loft in the valley of forrow ; doft thou not wilh

* me to give thee the object of thy paflion,

22. ‘ To exalt thee with dignity and power,

‘ to bring Laili before thee gratifying thy foul?’

23. ‘ No, -ncfj anfwered he, far, far is it from

* my wilh, that an atom Ihould be leen together

* with the fun.’

24. ‘ Speak truly, replied the Prince, art thou
‘ not willing to recreate thyfelf on. the fmooth

* plain of that beautiful cheek ?

25. ‘ Or haft thou-no inclination to enjoy her
‘ charms ? I adjure thee, by the foul of Laili,

* to declare the truth !’

26. He rejoined : ‘ O chief of men with
‘generous hearts, a particle of duft from thy
‘ gate is a diadem on my head.

ofp AStAtTdt w<mis6. as

27. * The pain of my love for LailI is fufr

* ficient for my heart : k vriih to enjoy her pr&>

* fence tijus would be injullice.

28. * To gratify this contemptible foal of

* mine, a fingle ray from that bright luminary

* would be enough.’

29. He fpake, and ran towards the ddert,
his eye weeping,, and his eye-laflies raining tears.

Thefe couplets would fully anfwer the pur-
pofe of fh owing the method, in which Perjiaft
may be written according to the original cha-
racters, with fome regard alfo to the Isjabdni
pronunciation ; but, finee a very ingenious ar-
tift, named Mohammkd Ghau'th, has en-
graved a tetrailich on copper, as a fpecimen of
his art, and fince no moveable types can equal
the beauty of Perjian writing, I annex his plate*,
and add the four lines, which lie has feleCted, in
Engiyb letters : they are too eafy to require a
tranflation, and too infignificant to deferve it.

Huwal dztx

Cajhmi ter ah' bum zi to ddr\m md
keblah toyt rii beceh arrm md
tdjati md dz td ber Syed temhn
ddmenat dz cj ncguzdrim md.

roL. I,

• Plate VL
Z

Ili ONJIP ORTHOGRAPHY

VI.

Hie fifft i^cimen of Hindis that occurs AO, me,
is a littlf Gbazal or' love-fong, in a Cbwiam-
bick meafure, written by Gunn a' Beigom,
Che wife of Gha ziu’|.|}iN Kh'an, a man of
eonfummate abilities and confummate wicked-
0^ who has borne an adive part in the mo*
dern tranfaAions of Upper Hinduftan.

Ic <J^^A zA

t

f

Vi>7 1 pm Sei

/ /Ij." y- '

•z'

•vi

/<.W^ .liXK.

ft

,I

^ <Ui^f-\ z'’.

(\- /»»% ylK ^ .

j^.r

I

.a-4ptfet

y y^

>) .<^ j ^it'

^.oM

'i?

Z^ z' •" l"^ ■• z^.

, «4 <^1 ^

.0J?£5UI^
1^

Pl4if4^,n.

OF ASIAUCK WORDS.

-317

(jr(p^ \S^'^

Muddait heme fokban fdz bi fdlus) hdi
ab Uimenna c 'o yehhi muzhedei mayusi hdi
dh ab cafrati ddghi ghemi kbubdn se temdm
s'ajh'di sinah mkajilzva'i t'dus) hat

hat meii t'arah' jigar hiuni terii muddaUe

at b inna cijci tnjbe khwdbijbi pdbusi hat
• • •

dzvazi derd meze se xvab bbere bain sure

jis lehi zakbam ne JhemJbiri text cbusl bal

tobmati ifbk abas carte bain mujbper Minnat
hdn yeb Jecb milne ci kbubdn se tu tuc kbusi bat.

The Tranflation.

1. My beloved foe fpeaks of me with diffi-
mulation ; and now the tidings of defpair are
brought hither to the defiire of my foul.

2. Alas, that the fmooth furface of my bofora,
through the marks of burning in the fad ab-
fence of lovely youths, is tccome like the plum-
age of a peacock.

i\9 ON THE ORTHOGRAPHT, &c.

3. Like me, O Henna (the fragi^t and ele-
gant ihrub, with rixe leaves of which the Hails of
Arabian women are dyed crimfhn), thy heart
has long been full of blood: whofe foot art
thou denrous of killing ?

4. Inllead of pain, my beloved, every wound
from tljy cimeter fucks with its lips the fweet-
nefs, with which it is filled.

5. The fufpicion of love is vainly caft on
Min NAT— Yes; true it is, that my nature rather
leads me to the company of beautiful youths.

Thus have I explained, by obfervations and
examples, my method of noting in Roman letters
the principal languages of Afia ; nor can I doubt,
that Armenian, TurkiJJj, and the various dialers
of Tartary, may be expreffed in the fame man-
ner with equal advantage ; but, as Cbinefe words
are not written in alphabetical chalraders, it is
obvious, that they tnuft be noted according to
the beft prommciation ufed in China j which has,

I imagine, few founds incapable of being ren-
dered by the fymbols tded in dds efiay.

THE GODS OF GREECE, ITALY, AND
INDIA,

written in 1784 , AND SINCE REVISED.

BY

THE PRESIDENT.

W E cannot juftly conclude, by arguments pre-
ceding the proof of fadts, that one idolatrous
people muft have borrowed their deities, rites,
and tenets from another; fince Gods of all
fliapes and dimehfions may be framed by the
boundlefs powers of imagination, or by the
frauds and follies of men, ii/ countries never
conneded but, when features of refemblance,
too ftrong to have been accidental, are obfervable
in different fyftems of polytheifm, without fancy
or prejudice to colour them and improve the
likenefs, we can fcarce help believing, that fome
connection has immemorially fubfifted between
the feveral nations, who have adopted them ; it
is my defign in this elfay, to poijit out fuch a
refemblance between the popular worfliip of the
old Greeks and Italians and that of the Hindus ;
nor can there be room to doubt of a great fimi*

320

ON THE GODS OF GREECE,

larky between their llrange religions and that of
Egypt^ China, Perfia, Phrygia, Phoenice, Syria ;
to which, perhaps, we may fafely add fome of
the fouthern kingdoms and even Iflands of
rica ; while the Gothick fyftem, which prevailed
in the northern regions of Europe, was not
merely fimilar to thofe of Greece and Italy, but
almoft the fame in another drefs with an em-
broidery of images apparently Jijiatick, From
all this, if it be fatisfaftorily proved, we may
infer a general union or affinity between the
mo ft diftinguiflied inhabitants of the primitive
world, at the time when they deviated, as they
did too early deviate, from the rational adoration
of the only true God.

There feem to have been four principal fources
of all mythology. I. Hiftorical, or natural,
truth has beeil perverted into fable by^ ignorance,
imagination, flattery, or ftupidity ; as a king of
Crete, whofe tomb had been difcovered in that
ifland, was conceived to have been the God of
Olympus, and Minos, a legiflator of that country,
to have been his fon, and to hold a fupreme
appellate jurifdiction over departed fouls ; hence
too probably flowed the tale of Cadmus, as
Bochart learnedly traces itj hence beacons or
volcanos became one-eyed giants and monfters
vomiting flames ; and two rocks, from their ap-
ptttiance to mariners in certain pofitions, were

ITALY, AND INDIA.

821 •

fuppofed to crulh all vtflTels attempting to pidt
between them; of vyhifh idle fidions many
other inftances might be collefted from the
Odyjfey and the vaxiom ’ Ar^onautick poems.
The lefs we fay of Julian liars, deifications of
princes or warriours, altars raifed, with thofe of
Apoi-lo, to the bafeft of men, and divine titles
beftowed on fuch wretches as Cajus Octa-
VI AN us, the lefs we lhall expofe the infamy of
grave fenators and fine poets, or the brutal folly
of the low multitude: but we may be aflfured,
that the mad apotheofis of tnily great men, or of
little men falfely called great, has been the origin
of grofs idolatrous errors in every part of the
pagan world. II. The next fource of them
appears to have been a wild admiration of the
heavenly bodies, and, after a time, the fyftems
and calculations of Allronomers : heiice came a
confiderable portion of Egyptian and Grecian
fable ; the Sabian worlhip in Arabia ; the Perjian
types and emblems of Mibr or the fun, and the
far extended adoration of the elements and the
powers of nature ; and hence perhaps, all the
artificial Chronology of the Chinefe and Indians ^
with the invention of demigods and heroes to
fill the vacant niches in tljeir extravagant and
imaginary periods. III., Niimberlefs divinities
have been created folely by the magick of poe-
try ; whofe eflential bufinefs it is, to perfonify

on the cods of GREECE,

the mod »bftra<d notions, and to place t nymph
a genius in every grove and almoft in every
llower: hence Hygida and yafo, health and
remedy, aie the poetical daughters of ^^scula-
Pius, who was either a diftinguilhed phyfician,
pr medical fkill perfonified ; and hence - • o/ r,
or verdure, is married to the Zephyr. IV. The
metaphors and allegories of moralifts and meta-
phyficians have been alfo very fertile in Deities;
of which a thoufand examples might be adduced
d*om Plato, Cicero, and the inventive com-
mentators on Homkr in their pedigrees of the
Gods, and their fabulous leffbns of morality:
the richeft and nobleft ftream from this . bun-
dant fountain is the charming philofopliical tale
of Psyche, or the Progrejs oj the SquI-, than
which, to my tafte, a more beautiful, fublime,
and well Supported allegory was never produced
by the wifdom and ingenuity of man. Hence
alfq the InfAian Ma ya, as the word is ex-»
plained by fome Hindu fcholaxs, “the firft in-
clination of the Godhead to diverfify himfclf
(fuch is their phrafe) by creating worlds,” is
feigned tP be the mother of univerfal nature,
and of jdl the inferiour Gods ; fis a Cajhmiridn
l iformed me> when I alked him, why Ca'ma,
or wa^s reprefented as her fon ; but the

yiord Mava', or delufian^ has a more fubtile
And recon^te ienfe in the Vedanta philofophy,

ITALY, AND INDIA.

^23 ,

■where it fignifies the fyftein oi perceptions, whe-
ther of fecondary or of primary qualities, which
the Deity was believed by i- pi c haRmus, Pla-
to, and many truly pious ‘men, to raife by his
omniprefent fpirit in the minds of his creatures,
but which had not, in their opinion, any cxift-
ence independent of mind.

In drawing a parallel between the Gods of
the Indian and Eut opean heathens, from what-
ever fource they were- derived, I fhall remember,
that nothing is lefs favourable to enquiries after
truth than a fyileinatical fpirit, and fliall call to
mind the faying of a Hindu writer, “ that who-
‘‘ ever obftinat.ely adheres to any fet of opinions,
may bring himfelf to believe that the freflieft
“ fandal wood is a flame of fire this will
effedually prevent me from infilling, that fuch
a God of India was the of Greece ; fuch,

t/je Apollo; fuch, the Mercury : in fa£l, fince
all the caufes of polytheifm contributed largely
to the aflcmblage of Grecian divinities (though
Bacon reduces them all to refined allegories,
and Newton to a poetical difguife of true
hiftory), we find many Joves, many Apollo?,
many Mercuries, with diftindl attributes and
capacities ; nor fhall I prefume to.fuggeft more,
than that, in one capacity pjr another, there exiils
9 ftriking fimilitude - between the chief objects
(of worfhip in ancient Greece or Italy and in the

324 ON THE GODS OF GREECE,

very interefting countiy, which we now in-
habit.

The comparifon, which I proceed to lay
before you, muft needs be very fuperficial, partly
from my fhort relidence in Hindujtan, partly
from my want of complete leifure for literary
amufements, but principally becaufe I have no
Kuropem book, to refrelli my memory of old
fables, except the conceited, though not unlearn-
ed, work of PoMi Y, entitled the Vantheon, and
that fo miferably^ tranflated, that it can hardly
be read with patience. A thoufand more llrokes
of refemblance might, I am fure, be colleiled by
any, who fhould with that view perufe Hesiod,
Hyginus, Cornu tus, and the other mytho-
logifls ; or, which would be a Ihorter and a
plcafanter way, fhould be fatisfied with the very
elegant Syntagmata oi hihivs Gira^-dus.

Difqnifitlons concerning the manners and con-
dud of our fpecies in early times, or indeed at
any time, are always curious at leaft and amuf*
ing ; but they are highly interefting to fuch, as
can fay of themfelves with Chrf.mks in the
play, “ We are men, and take an intereft in all
** fhat relates to mankind They may even be
of folid importance in an age, when fome in-
telligent and virtuous perfons are inclined to
doubt the authenticity of the accounts, delivered
by Moses, concealing the primitive world;

IT ALT, AND INDIA.

S2S

imce no modes or fourccs of reafoning can be
unimportant, which have a tendency to remove
fuch doubts. Either the firft eleven chapters of
Genejis, all due allowances being made for a
figurative Eaftern ftyle, are true, or the whole
fabrick of our national religion is falfe ; a con-
clufion, which none of us, I truft, would wifli to
be drawn. I, who cannot help believing the
divinity-of the Messiah, from the undifputed
antiquity and manifeft completion of many
prophefies, efpecially thofe of Isaiah, in the
only perfon recorded by hiftory, to whom they
are applicable, am obliged of courfc to believe
the fandtity of the venerable books, to which
that I'acred perfon refers as genuine ; but it is
not the truth of our national religion, as fuch,
that I have at heart : it is truth itfelf ; and, if
any cool unbiafled reafoner wilf clearly convince
me, that Moses drew his narrative through
Egyptian condiiits from the primeval fountains
of Indian literature, I fhall efteem him as a
friend for having weeded my mind from a ca-
pital error, and promife to Hand among the
foremoft inaflilting to circulate the truth, which
he has afeertained. After fuch a declaration',
I cannot but perfuade myfelf, that no candid
man will be difpleafed, i^.in the courfe of my
work, I make as free'with any arguments, that
he may have advanced, as I Ihould really defirc

526

ON THE GODS OF GREECE,

him to do with any of jnine, that he may be dif*
pofed to controvert. Having no fyftem of my
own to maintain, I fhall not purfue a very re-
gular method, but fhall take all the Gods, of
whom I difcourfe, as they happen, to prefent
themfelves ; beginning, however, like the Ro~
mans and the Hindus, with Janu or Gane'sa.

The titles and attributes of this old Italian
deity are fully comprized in two choriambick
verfes of SuLPiTius; and a farther account of
him from Ovid would here be fuperfluous;

Jane pater, Jane turns, dive biceps, blformis,

O cate rerum fator, O principium deorum !

** Father Janus, all- beholding Janus, thou

divinity with two heads, and with two forms ;
** O fagacious planter of all things, and leader
“ of deities !” ‘

He was the God, we fee, of fFifdom-, whence
he is reprefented on coins with two, and, on the
Hetrufean image found at Falifci, with four,
faces ; emblems of prudence and circumfpeilion ;
thus is Gane'sa, the God of Wifdom in £f/«-
dujian, painted with an Elephant’s head, the
fymbol of fagacious difeernment, and attended
by a favourite rat, which the hidiatis conlider as
a wife and provident animal. His next great
chara6ter (the plentiful fource of many fuper-
fUtiot|il ufages) was that, from which he is em-

ITALY, and INDIA.

327

phatically ftyled the father^ and which the fecond
verfe before-cited more fully exprefles, the origin
and fcntnder of all things: whence this notion
arofe, unlefs from a tradition that he firft built
fhrines, raifed altars, and inftituted facrifices, it
is not eafy to conjecture ; hence it came how-
ever, that his name was invoked before any
other God ; that, in the old facred rites, com
and wine, and, in later times, incenfe alfo, Avere
firft offered to Janu-s ; that the doprs or en-
trames to private houfes were galled yanuce,
and any pervious paffage or thorough-fare, in
the plural number, Jani^ or xvith two btgin-‘
flings ; that he .was, reprefented holding a rod as
guardian of ways, and a key, as opening, not
gates only, but all important tvorks and affairs of
mankind j that he was thought to prefide over
the morning^ or beginning of da^ ; that, although
the Roman year began regularly with Marcb^
yet the eleventh, month, named famarius^ was
confidered as JirJi of the twelve, whence the
whole year was fuppofed to be under his guid*
ance, and opened with great folemnity by the
confals inaugurated in his fane, where his ftatue
was decorated on that occafion with frefh laurel-;
and, for the fame reafon, a fokmn .denunciation
of Wat, than which diete.can hardly be a more
momentous national was made by the mi».
coup’s opening the gates of his templf

3‘28 ON THE GODS OF GREECE,

with all the pomp of his magiftracy. The twelve
altars and twelve chapels of Janus might cither
denote, according to the general opinion, that
he leads and governs twelve mpnths, or that, as
he fays of himfelf in Ovid, all entrance and
accefs mull be made through him to the prin-
cipal Gods, who were, to a proverb, of the fame
number. We may add, that Ja nus was imagin-
ed to prefide over infants at their birth, or the
beginning of life.

The Indian divinity has prccifely the fame
charadfer : all facirifices and religious ceremonies,
all addrefles even to fuperiour Gods, all ferious
compofitions in writing, and all worldly affairs
of moment, are begun by pious Hindus with an
invocation of Gane'sa; a word compofed of
ifa^ the governor or leader, and gana, or a com-
pany of deities, nine of which companies are enu-
merated in the Amarcojh. Inftances of opening
bufinefs aufpicioufly by an ejaculation to the
Janus of India (if the lines of refemblance here
traced will juftify me in fo calling him) might
be multiplied with cafe. Few books are begun
without the words falutation to Gane's, and he
is firft invoked by the BrdbmanSy who condudt
the trial by ordeal, or perform the ceremony of
the homa^ or facrifict to fire: M. Sonnerat
reprefents him as highly revered on the Coaft
qf Coromandel ; ** where the Indians^ he fays.

ITALY, AND INDIA.

329

“ would not on any account build a houfe, with-
“ out having placed on the ground an image ot‘
“ this deity, which they fprinklc with oil and
adorn every day with flow.ers ; they let up his
figure in all their temples, in the ftreets, in the
“ higlfroads^ and in open plains at the’ foot of
“ fome tree j fo that perfons of all ranks may in-
“ voke him, before they undertake any bufinefs,
and travellers worfliip him, before they ^o-*
“ ceed on their journey.” To this I ^ay add,
from my own obfervation, that m . the com-
modious and ufeful town, which now rifes at
Dbarm^anya or Gayd, under the aufpices of the
a£live and benevolent Thomas Law, Efq. col-
ledior of Rotas^ every new-built houfe, agree-
ably to an immemorial ufage of the Hindus, has
the name of Gane'sa fuperferibed on its door;
and, in the^jold town, his image is. placed over
the gates “bf the temples.

^We come now to Saturn, the oldeft of the
pagan Gods, of whofe office and adions much is
recorded. The jargon of his being the fon of
Earth and of Heaven, who was the fon of the
Sky and the Day, is purely a confeffion of ig-
norance, who were his parents or who his pre-
deceflbrs ; and there appears more fenfe in the
tradition faid to be mentioned by the inquifitive
and well informed Rlato, “ that both Sa-
** TURN or timey and' his confort Cybele, or

93d

ON THE GODS OF GREECE,

the Earthy together with their attendants, were
** the children of Ocean and Thetis, or, in lefs
** poetical language, fj^rahg from the waters of the
•* great deep.’* Crres, the goddefs of harvefts,
was, it feems, their daughter; and Virgil de-
fcribes “ the mother and nuffe of all as crown-
“ ed with turrets, in a car drawn by lions, and
** exulting in her hundred grandfons, all divine,
■“-all inhabiting fplendid celeftial manfions.” As
the God^of time, or rather as time itfelf per-
fonified, Saturn was ufually painted by the
heathens holding a fcythe in one hand, and, in
the other, a fnake with its tail in its mouth, the
fymbol of perpetual cycles and revolutions of
ages : he was often reprefented in the a£t of de-
vouring years, in the form of children, and,
fometimes, encircled by the feafons appearing
like boys and '’girls. By the Laiijis he was
named Saturnus ; and themoft ihgenioys ety-
mology of that word is given by Festus 'ihe
grammarian ; who traces it, by a learned analogy
to many fimilar names, a Jatu, from planting,
becaufe, when he reigned in Italy, he introduced
and improved agriculture : but his. diftinguilh-
ing character, which explains, indeed, all his
other titles, and fundfions, was expreffed alle-
gorically by the fteto of a fliip or galley on the
revitrfe of his ancieht coins ; for which Ovio
afligns a very unfatisfadory reafon, “ becaufe

ITALY, AND INDIA.

SSI

the divine ftrangef aijived in a fliip on the
“ Italian coaft as if he could have been ex-
peifled on horfe-bacl^ or’ hovering through the
air.

The account, quoted by Pomey from Alex-
ander Pe-LYHisTOR,. cafts a clearer light, if it
really came from genuine antiquity, on the whole
tale of Saturn; “that he predidied an ex-

€i

traordinary fall of rain, and ordcre^jdl^£<»n^
ftru£lion of a veflel, in which it wa^ neceflary
to fecurc men, beafts, birds, and^ptilcs from
a general inundation.”

Now it foems not eafv to take a cool review
of all thefe teftimonies concerning the birtli,
kindred, offspring, character, occupations, and
entire life of Sa I urn, without affenting to the
opinion of Bochart, or admitting it at leaft to
be highl^^robable, that the fable-was raifed on
the tpi/ hiftory of Noah ; from whofe flood a
period of time was computed, and a new
feries of ages may be faid to have fprung ; who
rofe frefli, and, as it were, newly born from the
waves; whofe wife was in fa£t the univerfal

mother, iqid, that the earth might fcon be re-
peopled, was early bleffed with numerous and
flouriftiing defeendants : if we produce, there-
fore, an Indian king of divine birth, eminent for
his piety and ben^fic^Hte, whofe ftory feems
evidently to be tb&t 'of Noa h difguifed by Afia-

VOL. I.

A A

832 ON THE GODS OF GREECE,

tick fidliion, we may fjifely offer a conje<51:ure,
that he was alfo the fame perfonage with Sa-
turn. This was MfNUp or Satyavj</,ta,
whofe pratronymick. name was Vaivasw a i ' a ,
or child of the Sun ; and whom the India'! . be-
lieved to have reigned over the whole worlu in
the earlieft age of their chronology, but to have
redded in the country of Dravira^ on the coaft
.Eaftcrn Indian Peninfula : the following
narrative '’;>f the principal event in his life 1 liave
literally tral'dated from the Bhagaval ; and it is
the iubjedl of iiie firll Pnrdna, entitled that of
the Matfya, or Fijh.

* Defiring the prefervation of herds, and of
‘ Brahmans, of genii and virtuous men, of the
‘ Vedas, of law, and of precious things, the lord
‘ of the unlvcrfc affumes many bodily fhapes ;

* but, though h« pervades, like the-^ir, a va-
‘ ricty of beings, yet he is himfeif unvaried,

' fince he has no quality fubjedt to change.
‘ At the clofe of the laft Catpa, there was a
‘ general deftrudtion occafioned by the deep of
‘ Brahma’; whence his creatures in. different

* worlds were drowned in a vaft oceap. Br ah-

* MA', being inclined to dumber, defiring repofe
‘ aficr a lapfe of ages, the ftrong demon Haya-
‘ ORt VA came near 'Jtim, and Hole the Vedas,

* which had dowed from his I’ps- When HtRt,

‘ the preferv^er of the univerie, difeovered this

ITALY, AND INDIA.

333

^ deed of the Prince o£ Danavas, he took the.
‘ fliape of a rtiinute fifh, called fap’hur'i. A
‘ holy king, named Satvavr ata, then reigned ;
* a fervant of the fpirit, Which moved on the
‘ waves, and.fo devout, that water was bis only
‘ fuftenanceT ♦ He was the child of the Sun,

‘ and, in the prefent Calpa, is inverted by Na-
‘ ra'yan in the office of Menu, by the name of

‘ Sra'ddh ade'v A, or the Ood of
* One day, as he was lyiaking a libati^ in the
‘ river Cntamdld, and held water .i^^he palm
‘ of his hand, he perceived a fmall firti moving

‘ in it. The kir^ of Dravira immediately
* dropped the^^fflh into the river together with
‘ the water, which he had taken from it ; when

‘ the fap’bari thus pathetically adclrefled the be-
‘ nevolent monarch: “ How canrt thou, O
“ king, wh-o'^fhoweft affetrtion to the opprefled,
lea^ me in this Hver-water, where I am too
“»weak to refirt the monrters of the rtream.

“ who fill me with dread ?” He, not knowing
* who had artumed the form of a fifh, applied
‘ his nrind to the prefervation of the fap'hari,

‘ both fromf.good nature and from reg^fird to his
‘ Own foul ; and, having heard its very fuppliant,
addrefs, h^ kindly placed it under his pro-
‘ tedfion \vf a fmall vafe fulbof water ; but, in a
fingle night, its bujik to increafed, that it
' could not be coiitfained in the jar, and thus

A A a

33i ON THE GODS OF GREECE,

* again addre/Ted the -illuftrions Prince : "lam
" not pleafed with living miferably in this little
" vafe ; make me a large manfion, where I may
“ dwell in comfort.” The king, removing it

* thence, placed it in the water of a ciftern ; but
‘it grew three cubits in lefs thanlffitty minutes,

* and faid : “ O king, it pleafes me not to flay
" vainly in this narrow ciftern : lince thou haft

me an afylum, give me a fpacious
habitation.” He then removed it, and placed
‘ it in a where, having ample fpace around

* its body, it became a ftfli of confiderable fizc.
" I'his abode, O king, is n^t convenient for me,
“ who muft fwim at large in th'd waters ; exert
“ thyfelf for my fafety ; and remove me to a
" deep lake Thus addreft'ed, the pious mo-
‘ narc'u threw the fuppliant into a lake, and,
‘ when it gveW of equal bulk witlithat piece of
‘ water, lie caft the vaft filh into the feaV* When
‘ the fiOi was throwm into the waves, he tltus
‘again Ipoke to Satyavrata: “here the
“ horned fliarks, and other monfters of great
“ ftrength will devour me ; thou fl.ouldft not,
“ O valiant man, leave me in this o/fean.” Thus

. ‘ repeatedly deluded by the fifli, who had*^d-
‘ dreiTod hijn with gentle words, the king faid :
“ who art thou, that beguileft me in that aflumed
“ fhape ? Never beftfrh have I feen or heard
“ fo prodigious an inhabitant of the waters, who,

ITALY, AND INDIA.

335

like thee, haft filled ufr, in a fitigle day, a lake
“ an hundred leagues in circumference. Surely,
“ thou art Bhagavat, who appeared before
‘‘ me; the great Heri, wh’ofe dwelling was on
“ thc,\yaves; and who now, incompaffion to thy
“ fervants, beareft the form of the natives of the
“ deep. Salutation and praife to thee, O firft
“ male, the lord, of creatidhjrdT prefervation, of
“ deftrudtion ! Thou art the higlieft.(3.%’>^t
“ fupremc ruler, of us thy adorers, w^o pioufly
“ feck thee. All thy delufive dfifeents in this
“ world give exiftence to various beings : yet i
“ am anxious to ^now, for what caufc that ftiape
“ has been .|ftlumed by thee. Let me not, O
“ lotos-eyed, approacli in vain the feet of a
“ deity, whofe perfed benevolence has been ex-
“ tended to all; when thou haft thewn us to
“ our amazement the appearante of other bodies
“ n®'L in reality exifting, but fucceiliyely ex»
'■' hibited.” The lord of the univerfc, lovnng
‘ the pious man, who thus implored him, and
‘ intending to preferve him from the , lea of de-
‘ ftrudioi#, caufed by the depravity of the age,

‘ thus told him how he v^as to ad. “ In feven
^ “Says from the prefent time, O thou tamer of
“ enemiesdthe three worlds will fie plunged in
“ an oc^^^£h of death; b^,.in the raidft of the
“ deftroying waves;' {Tl^arge veflel, fent by me
“ for thy ufe, MU ftand before thee. Then

az6 ON IHE GODS OF OREECE,

**• (halt thou take all medicinal herbs, all the va-
“ riety of feeds ; and, .accompanied by feven
Saints, encircled by pairs of all brute animals,
“ thou lhalt enter the fpacious ark and continue
“ in it, fecure from the flood on one immenfe
“ ocean without light, except the radiance of thy
“ holy companions. When the Ihip (hall be
“ agitated by an* ’impetuous wind, thou lhalt
with a large fea-ferpent on my horn ;
“ for I 'il^ll be near thee : drawing the velTel,
“ with thc3*iirid thy attendants, I will remain on
the ocean, O chief of men, until a night of
“ Brahma' fhall be complately ended. Thou
(halt then know my true grea^nefs, rightly
*' named the fiipreme Godhead ; by my favour,
“ all thy queftions (hall be anfwered, and thy
“ mind abundantly inftrudted.” Heri, having
‘ thus diredted the monarch, difappecred ; and
‘ Satvavrata humbly waited for the time,
‘ v/hich the ruler of our fenfes had appointed.
‘ The pious king, having fcattered towards the
‘ Eaft the pointed blades of the grafs darbba, and
‘ turning his face towards the North ! fate me-

* ditating on the feet of the God, who' had borne
‘ the form of a filh. The fea, overwhelming ifg

* fhores, deluged the whole earth and it was
‘ foon perceived to &e augmented b^ Ihowers

* from immenfe cloud^^.’, He, ftill meditating on

* the command of Bhagavat, faw the velTel

ITALY, AND INDIA.

837

* advancing, and entered it with the chiefs -of
‘ Brahmans, having carried into it the medicinal
‘ creepers and conformed to the direftions of
‘ Heri. The faints thus’ addrefled him : “O
“.Jf’’’*T..ipeditate on Ce'sava ; who will, furely,
“ deliver us* from this danger, and grant us prof-
“ parity. ” The God, being invoked by the
‘ monarch, appeared agam'^i<fin£t1y on the vaft
‘ ocean in the form of a fi(h, blazing.iiirji’gdld,

‘ extending a million of leagues, whrn one ftu-

‘ pendous horn ; on which the ...Whig, as he had
‘ before been commanded by Heri, tied the fhip
‘ with a cable ma-de of a vaft ferpent, and, happy

* in his pre^rvation, ftood praifing the deftroyer
‘ of Madhu. When the monarch had finiflied
‘ his hymi>, the primeval male. Bn ag a vat,

‘ who watched for his fafety on the great ex-
‘ panfe ot water, fpoke aloud *to his own divine
^ efience, "pronouncing a facred Vurang, which
‘ contained the rules of the Sane’ by a philofophy :

‘ but it was an infinite myftery to be concealed

* within ^hebr®afli.of Satyavrata ; who, fit-
‘ ting in the veftel\^ith the faints, heard the
‘principle of the foul, » the Eternal Being, pro-
‘ claimed* by thq preferving power. Then Hejit,

‘ rifing together with Brahma', from the de-
‘ ftru^ve deluge, whiph, was abated, flew the

* demon Haya.qrh<a, and recovered the facred
? books. SatyXvrata, inftrudled in all divine

338

ON THE GODS OF GREECE,

‘ an4 liuman knowledge, was appointed in the

* prefent Calpa, by the favour of Vishnu, the

* fcventh Menu, furnamed,.VAivASWATA : but
‘ the appearance of a'horned filh to the religious
‘ monarch was Maya, or delufion ; and he, »rho
‘ lhall devoutly hear this important allegorical

* narrative, will be delivered from the bondage
‘offm.’

’"'"^Jfejifr.^itome of the firft Indian Hiftory, that
is now exmnt, appears to me very curious and
very imporrauU^for the ftory, though whim-
fically dreffed up in the form of an allegory,
feems to prove a primeval tradition in this coun-
try of the univerjal deluge defcribed(-by Moses,
and fixes confequently the when the genuine
Hindu Chronology actually begins.- We find,
it is true, in the Vtirdn^ from which the narrative
is extracted, anotBer deluge which happened to-
wards the clofe of the third age, when^'u.n-
HIS3>’hir was labouring under the perfecution
of his inveterate foe Duryoohan, and when
Crishna, who had recently beicme -incarnate
for the purpofe of fuccou'lng the pious and of
deftroying the wicked, v as performing wonders
in the country of Mat’ hard ; but the fecond flood'
was merely local and intended only to. afiedl the
people. of^iJ^raja : theyv^ it feems, had oflended
lNPRA,4ltt God of the* &tmament, by their en-
thuiiafliik adoration of the i^ronderful child,

ITALY, AND INDIA.

* 39 .

who lifted up the moilntain Goverdhena, asf if
“ it had been a flower, and, by Iheltering all the
** herdfmen and Ihepherdefles from the ftorm,
“ convinced Indr a of his* fupremacy.” That
the Satva, ‘ or (if we may venture fo tp call it)
the Satumuw, age was in truth the age of the
general flood, w ill app ear from a clofe exa-
mination of the ten Avatdr^, or Defcents, of the
deity in his capacity of preferver ; fiace"8f ihe
four, which are declared) to have ^ippened in
the Satya yug^ the three jirji appaVently relate to
fome ftupendous convulfion of our globe from,
the fountains of the deep, and the fourth exhibits
the miracul^s punifhment of pride and impiety:
firft, as we have fhown, there was, in the opinion
of the Hindus, an interpofition of Providence to
preferve a .devout pcrfon and his family (for aH
the Pandits agree, that his *wife, though not
named, muft be underftood to have been faved
with him) from an inundation, by which ^ the
wicked were deftroyed j next, the power of the
deity defc^jjdwR^Jie form of a Boar, the fymbol
of ftfength, to draw uo and fupport on his talks
th^(^hole earth, whicn had been funk beneath
'^the ocean; thirdly, the fame power is repre-
fented asia tortoife fuftaining the globe, which
had beCn convulfed by the violent aflaults of de-
mons, while the,.p<^ churned the fea with the
, mountain Mandar, and forced it to difgorge the

340

ON THE GODS OF GREECE,

iacred things and animals, together with the
water of life, which it jhad fwallowed : thcfe
three ftories relate, I think, to the fame event,
ihadowed by a moriil, a metaphyfical, and an
agronomical, allegory ; and all three feem con-
ne£led with the hieroglyphical fculp'tures of the
pid Egyptians. The fourth Avatar was a lion
iliuing from a buffl^-.g column of marble to de-
»S&r^blafpheming monarch, who would other-
wife have^
inaining fi

jdeloge : the tliree, which are afcribed to the Tre-
tdyugy when tyranny and irrelidon are faid to
have been introduced, were ordained for the
overthrow of Tyrants, or, their natural types.
Giants with a thoufand arms formed for the moft
cxtcnfive oppreflion j and, in the DzvJparyug,
the incarnation df Crishxa was partly for a
llmiiar purpofe, and partly with a view to thixi
the ivorld of unjuft and impious men, who had
multiplied in that age, and began to fwarm on
the approach of the Caliyug, /ir^.the, age of con-
tention and bafenefs. As«io Buddha, he leems
to have been a reformer of the doctrines -epn-
tained in the V edas ; and, though his' good n^
ture led him to cenfure thofe ancient hooks, be-
caufe they enjoined facrifices of cattle, yet he is
admitted as the ninth Afr<iw?reven by the Bf'dhr
plans of Cdsi, and his praifes -are fung by the

flain hi

his religious fon j and of the re-r
)t one has the leaft relation to a

ITALY, AND INDIA, 9*1

poet Jayade'va: his ‘charader is in many re-
^e£ts very extraordinary ; but, as an account of
it belongs rather to Hiftory than to Mythology,
it is referved for another diflertation. The tenth
Avatar, we are told, is yet to come,-,and is ex-
pected to ' appear mounted (like the crowned
conqueror in the Apocalyps) on a white horfe,
with a cimeter blazing a comet to mow
down all incorrigible and impenitent offenders,
who fhall then be on eai^th.

Thefe four Yugs have fo apparent an affinity
with the Grecian and Roman ages, that one
origin may be naturally affigned to both fyftems :
the firft in. both is diftinguiflied as abound-
ing in gold, though- S'a/ya mean truth And probity ^
which were found, if ever, in the times imme-
diately following fo tremendous an exertion of
the divine power as the deftfuCfioii of mankind
by a general deluge ; the next is characterized
by filver, and the third, by copper ; thou^ their
ufual names allude to proportions imagined in
each betwesjudee and virtue : the prefent, or
earthen, age feems^aore properly diferiminated
tl^ by iron, as in aVcient Europe ; fince that
metal i^ not bafer or lefs ufeful, though more
common in our times and confequently left
precious, than coppery .while mere earth con-
veys an idea foweft degradation. We

may here obferve, that the true Hiftory of the

SM ON THE GODS OF GREECE,

World feems obviouflydivifible into four ages
or periods ; which may, he called, firft, thte
jyHuvian, or pureft age;. namely, the- times
preceding the deluge*, and thofe fucceeding it
till the introduftion of idolatry at Babel;
next, the Patrimchal, or pure, age; in which,
indeed, there were mighty hunters ofbeafts and
of men, from the patriarchs in the family

of Sem to. the fimiiltaneous eftablifliment of
great Empires by the dlpfcendants of his brother
Ha'm ; thirmy, the Mojaick, or lefs pure, age ;
firom the legation of Moses, and during the time,
when his ordinances were comparatively well-
obferved and uncorrupted; laftly,the.^ro/>/!)^/ica/,
or impure^ age, beginning with the vehement
warnings given by the Prophets to apollate
Kings and degenerate nations, but ftill fubfifting
and to fubfift, UntH all genuine prophecies Ihall
be fully accompliftied. The duration of the
Hifto^ical ages muft needs be very unequal and
difproportionate ; while that of the Indian Tugs
is difpofed fo regularly and art'jicially, that it
cannot be admitted as natiwul or probable : toen
do not become reprobate/ in a geometrical y,fo-
grefiion or at the termination of regular periods^
yet fo well-proportioned are the Tugs^ that even
the length of human life is diminiflied, as they
advance from an hundi^edStboufand years in a
isbdecc^ ratio; and« as the number of principal

ITALY, AND 'INDIA.

S4S

Amtdrs in each decreafcs arithmetically from
four, fo the number of years in each decreafes
geometrically, and all 'together conftitute the
extravagant fum of four million tHTree hundred
and twenty thoufand yeafs, which . aggregate,
multiplied- by feventy-one, is the period, in
which every Menu is believed to prefide over
the world. SucK olfi’e might conceive,

would have fatisfied Archytas, the meqfurer
of fea and earth and tbeymmherer of their fands^
or Archimedes, who invented a notation, that
was capable of exprefling the number of them ;
but the comprehenlive mind of an Indian Chro-
nologift has ho limits ; and the reigns of fourteen
Menus at*c only a.finglc day of Brahma', fifty
of which days’ Lave elapfed, according to the
Jlindt/s, from the time of tiic Creation : that all
this puerility, as it lecins at* firft view, may be
only an aftionomical riddle, and allude to the
apparent revolution of the fixed ll;ars,'’oP*wUich
the Brahmans made a myftery, I readily admit,
and am even inclined to believe •, hut fo technical
an*arra!i^ment deludes all idea of ferious
iriAory. I am fenfibl\ how much thefc remarks
ivill oSi^hd the warm advocates for an-

tiquity j but we muft not facrifice truth to a
bafe fear of giving offence ; that the Fedas were
a<ffually written JbeJ^^rt? the flood, I lhall never
believe j nor can we infer from the preceding

ON THE GODS OF GREECE!,

ftory, that the learned Hindus believe it ; for the
allegorical flumberof Brahma' and the theft of
the facred boolis mean only, in Ampler language,
that tbe human race, was become corrupt ; but that
the VMas are very ancient, and far older than
other Sanfcrit compofitions, I will venture to
aflert from my own examination of them, and
a comparifon of with that of the
'Furdns and the Dberina Sdjtra. A fimilar com-
parifon juftifies me in ^pronouncing, that the
excellent law'^book afcribed to Swa yambhuva
Menu, though not even pretended to have
been written by him, is more ancient than the
Bha GAVAT ; but that it was com|)ofed in the
jfirft age of the world, the Brahmans Would find
it hard to pcrfuade me ; and the date, which
has been affigned to it, does not appear in
either of the two cepies, which I pofiefs, or in
any other, that has been collated folr me : in
faif. thfe fuppofed date is comprized in a verfe,
which flatly contradidls the w -rk itfelf ; for it
tvas not Menu who compofe^the fyftem of
law, by the command of Wi father Brah
but a holy perfonage or dymigod, named B
GU, who revealed to men what Mej^tu
delivered at the_^ requeft of him and other faints
or patriarchs. In the Mdnava Sdjtra, to con-
clude this digrelfion, the m^^re is fo uniform
and melodious, and the ftyle lb pwfeftly Sanfcrit,

ITALY,' AND INDIA.

31 S

OT polijhedy that the book muft be more modern
than the fcriptures of* Mosrs, in which the
fimplicity, or rather riakednefs, of the Hebrew
dialedt, metre, and ftyle, muft convince every
unbiafled man of their fuperior antiquity.

I leave etymologifts, who decide evefry thing,
to decide whether the word Menu, or, in the
nominative cafe, Menus, has, any connexion
with Minos, the Lawgiver, and fuppoftd fon
of Jove: the Cretans, according to’ D iodorus
of Sicily, ufed to feign, that moft pf the great
then, who had been deified, in return for the
benefits which they had conferred on mankind,
were born in their ifland ; and hence a doubt
may be raifecl, whether Minos was really a
Cretan. The Indiati legiflator w^as the firft,
not the feventh. Menu, or Satyavfata,
whom I fdppofe to be the ^truRN of Italy e
part of Sa^t urn’s characler, indeed, was that
of a great lawgiver.

Qui genus indocile ac dirperfum montibus altis
Compofuit, li’jjrfaue dedit^

and, may fulped, ijjiat all the fourteen Me-
•NUs are reducible to one, who was called Nuh
by the Jrabs, and probably by the Hebrews,
though we have difguifed his name by an im-
proper pronunciation of jt.‘ Some near relation
between the feveihru • Menu and the Grecian.

346 ON TH2 GODS OF GREECE,

Minos may be inferred from the fmgular cha-
raQ:er of the Hindu God, Yam a, who was
aUb a child of the ,Su'n, and thence named
Vaivaswata ; he had too the fame title with
his brother, Sra ddhade'va : another of his
titles was Dhermara'ja, or King_ of JuJiicei
and athirdjPiTRiPETi, or Lord of the Patriarchs;
but he is chiefly diftinguidisdas judge of departed
fouls ; for the Hindus believe, that, when a foul
leaves its body, it immediately repairs to Yama-
pur, or the city of Yam a, where it receives a
juft fentence from him, and either afeends to
Swerga^ or the firft heaven, or is driven down
to Nmic, the region of ferpents,. or alTumes on
earth the form of fomo animal, unlefs its offence
had been fuch, that it ought to be condemned
to a vegetable, or even to a mineral, prifon.
Another of hisjtames is very remarkable: I
mean that of Ga la, or time, the idea of which
is in|i«iately blended with the charadters of Sa-
turn and of Noah; for the name Cronos
has a manifeft affinity with the word ebronos,
and a learned follower of'-^JjnfSVncHT aflTures
me, that, in the books jwhich the Behdtrt^ hold
lacred, mention is made of an univerj^l infmda-
tion, there named the deluge of Time.

It having been occafionally obferved, that
Ceres was the poetical daughter of Saturn,
we cannot clofe this head' yiitliouc adding, that

ITALY, AND INS^.

iKe Hindus alfo have their of Abmimc0^

whom they ufually call Lacshmi', and whom
they conlider as the daughter (n<« of Menu,
but) of Bhrigu, by whom the firft Code of
facrcd ordinances was promulgated : (he is alfo
named Pedma' and Camala' from the facred
Lotos or Nympbcea ; but her moft remarkable
name is Sri', or, in the firft cafe, Sri's, which
has a refemblance to the haiin, and mean^ /or-
tune or projperity. It may be contended, that,
although Lacshmi' may be figuratively called
the Ceres of Hindujlany yet any two or more
idolatrous nations, who fubfifted by agriculture,
might naturally conceive a Deity to prefide
over their labours, without having the leaft in-
tercourfe with eadh other; but no reafon ap-
pears, why two nations fliould concur in fup-
pofing that Deity to be a female v one at leaft
of them wotfld be more likely to imagine, that
the Earth was a Goddefs, and that the God of
abundance rendered her fertile. Befides, in
very ancient temples near Gaya, we fee images
of Lacshmi^ with fiUl breafts and a cord twill-
ed under her arm like born of plenty, which
Ibok very rnuch like the old Grecian and Roman
figures. of Ceres.

The faible of Saturn having been thus ana-
lyfed, let us proceed to »his dependents ; and
begin, as the Poet .advifes, with Jupiter, whofe

VOL. I. B B

i l 8 ON THE GODS OF GREECE,

fupremacy, thunder, and Ubertinifm every boy
learns from Ovid; while his great offices of
Creator, Preferver, and Deftroyer, are not ge-
nerally confidered .in the fyftems of European
mythology. The Romans had, as we have be-
fore obferved, many JupitERS, one of whom
was only the Firmament pcrfonified, as Ennius
clearly exprefles it :

Afpice hoc’fublime candens, quern invocant omnes jovetn.

This JuppTER orDiESPiTER is the IndianG^A
of the vifible heavens, called Indra, or the
King, and Divespbtir, or Lord of the Sky,
who has alfo the charadteV of the Roman Ge-
nius, or Chief of the good fpirlts; but moft
of his epithets in Sanferit are the fame with
thoffc of the Ennicm Jove. His confort is nam-
ed Saciii';- his< celeftiaT city, ^mardvatii his
palace, Viujayanta:^ his garden, }^andana\ f[SiS
chief elephant, Airavat', \Cis charioteer, Ma^
n'ALi ; and his weapon, V^ra, or the thuada:-
bolt: he is the regent of winds and
and, though the Eall is peculiarly tinder Ijis care,
yet his Olympus is Mepi, or the north pole alle-
gorically repreiented as a mountain of gold arid
gems. With all his power he is confidered as
a fubordinate Deity, and far inferior to the
Indian Triad, Brahma', Vishnu, and Ma-
ha'devA or Siva, who are ‘three forms of one'

ITALY, AND INDIA.

349

and the fame Godhead : .thus the principal di-.
vinity of the Greeks and Latins, whom they
called Zeus and Jupiter; with irregular in-
flexions Dios and Jo vis, was not merely Ful-
minator, the Thunderer, but, like the deftroying
power of India, Magnus Divus, Ultor,
Genitor ; like the preferving power. Con-
servator, Soter,’ Opitulus, Altor, Fu-
min’ us, and, like the creating power, the Giver
oj Life ; an attribute, which I mention here on
the authority of Cornutus, a confummatc
mailer of mythological learning. AVe are advifed
by Plato himfelf to fearch for the roots of
Greek words in fomc barbarous, that is, foreign,
foil ; but. fuicfe I looi.. upon etymological con-
jedlures as a weak’bafis for hillorical inquiries,
1 hardly dare fuggeft, that Zev, Siv, and Jov,
are the fame fyllable differently pronounced ; it
mull, howevbr be admitted, that the Greeks
having no palatial Jigma^ like that of the Indians^
might have exprelfed it by their zeta, and that
the initial letters of zngon and jugum are (as the
inllance proves) eafily interchangeable.

Let us now defeend, from thefe general and
introdudory remarks, to fome particular obferv-
ations on the refemblance of Zeus or Jupiter
* to the triple divinity Vishnu, Siva, Brahma';
for that is the order, in whkh they are exprelfed
by the letters A, U, and M, which eoalefce and

B B 2

350

ON THE GODS OF GREECE,

form the myftical wbrd O'M ; a word, which
never efcapes the lips of a pifeus Hindu, who me-
ditates on it in filence : whether the Egyptian ON,
which is commonly fuppofed to mean the Sun,
be the Sanjcrit monorfyllable, I leave others to
determine. It mull always be remembered, that
the learned Indians, as they are inftrufted by
theu> own books, in truth acknowledge only
One Supreme Being, whom they call Brahme,
or THE GREAT ONE in thc neutcr gender; they
believe his Eflence to be infinitely removed from
the comprehenfion of any mind but his own j
and they fuppofc him to manifeft his power by
the operation of his divine fpirit, whom they
name Vishnu, the Penmder, and Na'ra'yan,
or Moving on the waters, both in the mafeuline
gender, whence he is often denominated the
Firft Male', and by this power they believe, that
the whole order of nature is preferved and fup-
■ported ; but the Veddntis, unable to form a dif-
tinfl; idea of brute matter independent of mind,
or to conceive that the work of Supreme Good-
nefs was left a moment to itfelf, imagine that
the Deity is ever prefent to his work, and con-
ftantly fupports a feries of perceptions, which,
in one fenfe, they call iUufory, though they can-
not but admit the reality of all created forms, as
far as the happrnefs of creatures can be affedled
by them'. When they confider the divine power

ITALY, AND INDIA. S.-ii

exerted in creating^ or in' giving exiftence to that
which exifted not before, they call the deity
Br AM a' in the mafeuline gender alfo j and, when
they view him in the light of Dejiroyer^ or rather
Changer of forms, they give him a Jthoufand
names, of wdiich i^SA, or i'swara, Ru-

DRA, Hara, SaMsot, and IvfAHADEVA or
Maiie'sa, are the moft common. lirll

operations of thefe three Vow£rs are varioufly
deferibed in the different Tur ana's by a number
of allegories, and from them we may 'deduce the
Ionian Philofopliy of primeval water, the dodtrine
of the Mundane Egg, and the veneration paid
to the Nyrnphii’a, or Lotos, which was anciently
revered in Egypt, it is at prefent in Hhidujtdn,
Tibet, and Nepal: ihA^^betians are faid to em-
belliih their temples and jdtars with it, and a na-
tive of Nepal made proffratiorll before it on en-
tering my ftudy, wherfi the fine pkint and beau-
tiful flowers lay Mr. HolweT,

in explaining Brahma'

to be floating on a in the midft of

ihe abyfs ; but it was manifeflly intended by a
for a lotos-lea^ or for that of the ht>~
.^^^g-tree ; nor is th^ of pepper, known

iSi^ei^al by the name -ot^^Edinhula, and on the
oi MdeAae by that betd, held facred; m
fie afferts, by the Jlincbts, cir oeceffarily cultivated
under the infpe^oii of Brahmans » though, as

352

ON THE GODS OF GREECE,

the vines are tender, sU^e plantations df them
are carefully fecured, and ought to be cultivated
by a particular tribe of Siidras^ vpho are thence
called TdmbuU's.

That water was the primitive dement and
firft work of the Creaiiv.e Povver, is the uniform
opinion of the Indum Pl^dfophers.; but, as they
give»fo particular {in account of the general de-
luge and iof the Creation,' ft can never be admit-
ted, that their whole fyftem arofe frdm traditions
concerning the flood only, and muft appear in-
dubitable, that their dodrine is in part borroweij
from the opening of Birds'it or Genefis, than’
which a fublimer paflfage, from the firft word to
the laft, never flowed or' w’ll flow from' any
human pen : “ In the beginning God created the
“ heavens and the earth.— *And the earth was

o'

void and wafte, and darknefs was on the face
“ of the deep, and the fpirit of God moved upmi
the face of the waters; and Goo faids L^
Light k*-and Light was.^’ The
of this palTage is confiderably diminiftied fey tfte '
Indian paraphrafe of it, with' which MENtr,'^he
fon of Brahma', begins his addrefs j:o the lages,
who confulted him on the formation of thc^tifti-
verfe: “ This world, fays he, was all darknefs,

“ undifcernible, undiftinguilhable, altogethefens
“ in a profound fleep ; till the fcll-exiftent in-
vilibie God, making it manifeft with five elo-

ITALY, AND INDIA.

85a

merits and other glorious forms, perfedly dlf-
“ pelled the gloom. He, defiring to raife up
“ various creatures by an emanation from his
“ own glory, firft created the waters, and im-
“ preffed them with I power of motion : by that
“ power was produced a golden Egg, blazing
like a thoufand funs, in which was born
“ Brahma', felf-exifting, the great parent of all
“ rational beings. The waters are called ndra,
“ fince they are the plFspring of Nera (or I's-
“ WARA ; and thence was Na'ra'yan A named,
“ becaufe his firft ayana, or moving, was on
** them.

“ That wjiicii is, the invifible caufe, eter--
** nal, felf-exifting, but unperceived, becoming
“ raafeulineyroOT neuter, is celebrated among all
“creatures by the name of Bisaiima. That
“ God, having dwelled in the'Egg, through re-
“ volving years, Himfelf meditating on Himfelf,
“ divided it into two equal parts ; and from.
“ thofe halves formed the heavens and the earth,
placing in the raidft the fubtil ether, the eight
points ofthe world, and the permanent recep-
“ tacle of waters.”

^ To this curious deftription, with which the
Mdnava Sdjlra begins, I cannot jefrain from
fubjoining the four verfes, which are the text of
the Bbdgavat, and are b,elifeved to have been pro»
nounced by the Supreme Being to Brahma';

iSi ON THE GODS OF OUEECE,

the following verfion is moft fcrupuloufly lit
tcral*,

“ Even I was evert at firft, not any othet'
thing i that, which exifts, unperceived ; fu-
“ preme ; afterwards I am that which isj
** and he, who muft remain, am I. •

Except the First Cause, whatever may
appear, and may not appear., in the mind,
know that to be the mind’s Ma'ya' (or Delu~
**Jion), as light, as darknefs.

** As the great elements are in various beings,
fentcring, yet not entering (that is, pervading,
“ not deftroying), thus am I in them, yet not
“ in them.

** Even thus far may inquiry be made by him,
who feeks to know the principle of mind, in
^ union and feparation, which muft be Every

‘‘ WHERE aEWA'YS.”

Wild and obfcure as thefe ancient verfes muft
appear in a naked verbal tranflation, it will per-
haps be, thought by many, that the poetry or
mythology of Greece or Italy afford no con-
ceptions more aWfully magnificent : yet the bre-
vity and fimplicity of the Mofaick diction are
unequalled.

As to the creation of the world, in the opinion
of the Romans, Ovid, who might naturally have
^een expe^ed to defcribe it with learning and
* See die Original, p. 294. Plate IV.

VoU.

35 «

ITALY, a4iD INDIA.

1

elegance, leaves us wholly in the dark, which of
the Gods was the adlor in it: other My thologifts
are more explicit ; ajid we may rely on the au-,
thority of Coiinut|Js, tljfat the old European
heathens confiderediJovE (not* the fein of Sa-
turn, but of the Ethei\ that is of an unknown
parent) as the great Life-giv^r, and Father of
Gods and jnen j . to which niay be added tl\e Or-
pheaii Ao&.r\tic, preferved by Proclus, that
“ the abyfs and empy return, the earth and fea,
“ the Gods and Goddefles, were pi'oduced by
Zeus or Jupiter.” In this character he cor-
refponds with Brahma'; and, perhaps, with
that God of the Babylonians (if we can rely on
the accounts of their ancient religion), who, like
Brahma', reduced the univcrfe to order, and,
like Brahma', lojl his head, with the blood of
which new animals were inflantly formed : I
allude to the common ftory, the meaning of
which I cannot difcover, that Brahma' had
five heads till one ctf them was cut off by Na-
ra'ya'n._

. -^That, in another capacity, Jove was, the
J^lperAad, tdl, we may f^le^ ffom
J»$ old Latin epithets, and from Cicero, who
informs us, that his ufual name is*a contra(3;ion
0f Javans Pater i an etymology, which fiiows
the idea entertained of his character, though we
zxiay have feme doidit of its accuracy. Calli-

956 ON THE GOD^OF GREECE,

MACHUS, we know, addrefles him as the be-
Jlower of all good, and of fecuntyfrom giief ; and,
Jince neither wealth without virtue, nor virtue
without wealth, give complete happitu fs, he prays,
like a wiffe poet, for both. An Indian prayer
for riches would be diredled to LA'c^in: T, the
wife of Vishnu,' '(ince the Hindu Godclcffcs are
believed to be the powers of their refpedive
lords: as to Cuvr/uA, the Indian Piu'us, one
of whofe names is raulajh'a, he is revered, in-
deed, as a magnificent Deity, refiJlng in the
palace of Alacd, or borne throiigli the fky in a
fplendid car named Pujlapaca, but is manifeftly
fubordinate, like the other feven Genii, to the
three principal Gods, or rather to the principal
God confidcred in three capacities. As the foul
of the world, or the pervading mind, fo finely
deferibed by Virgil, we fee Jove reprefented
by feveral Roman poets ; and with great fub-
limity by Lucan in the known fpeech of Cato
concerning the Ammonian oracle, ** Jupiter is,

“ wherever we look, wherever we move,” This
is precifely the Indian idea of Vishnu, accord-
ing to the four verfes above exhibited, not tha^
the Brahmans imagine their male Divinity te^^
be the divine’ EJjhice of the great one, which
they declare to be wholly incomprehenfible j
but, fince the power of prejerving created things
by a fuperintending providence, belongs eini-*

ITALY, INDIA. %5X

nently to the Godhead, they hold that poww to
exift tranfcendently in the prefervirtg member
of the Triad, whom they fuppofe to be every
WHERE ALWAYS, j\ot in^ybftancc, but in fpirit
and energy : here, however, I fpeak of*the V aijh-
vavas\ for' the Saivds afcribe a fort of pre-
eminence to S V4, whofe attji4butes are now to
be concifely examined.

It was in the capacity of Avenger and De-
ftroyer, that Jo\ e encountered and overthrew
the Titans and Giants, whom Tvriion, Bria-
UEUS, Titius, and the reft of their fraternity,
led againft the God of Olympus’, to whom an
Eagle brought lightning and thunderbolts during
the warfare : thiSs, 'in a fimilar conteft between
Siva and the Daityas, or children of Dirr,
who frequently rebelled againft heaven, Buaii-
TUA is believed to have prefented the God of
Deftrudfion with fiery JbaJLs. One of the many
poems, entitled Ru.ndyan, the laft book of which
has been tranflated into Italian, contains an extra-
ordinary dialogue betw'cen the crow Bhufiounda,
aild a rational Eagle, named Gauuda, who is
often painted with the face of a beautiful youth,
and the body of an imaginary bird; and one of
the eighteen Furdnas bears his name and com-
prizes his whole hiftory.^ • M. Sonnerat in-
forms us, that VisuNir is reprefented in fome
places riding on the Garuda, which he fup-

ON THE eODii^OF GREECE,

pdfes to be the^ondicberi Eagle of BRissq(.sr,
efpecially as the Brahmans of the Coaft highly
venerate that clafs of birds, and provide food
for numbers of theii^ at ftatcd hours : I rather
conceive the Garuda to be a fabulous bird, but
agree with him, that the Hindu God, who rides
on it, refcmbles i^he ancient Ju PIT i;k. In the
old tepiplcs at Gaya, V rs n n u is, either mounted
on this poetical bird or attended by it together
w'ith a little page ; but, . left an etynaologift
fhould fin’d Ganv-Mko in G.vuri), I rpuft
obferve that the Sanfivit word is pronounced
Garura i thougli I admit, that the and

Indian ftories of the cclelllal.bird and the page
appear to iiavc fome refemWan(:e. As the Olym-
pian Jupri'Kii fixed his Court and held his
Councils on a lofty and brilliant mountain, fo
the appropriated feat of Man a'de'v a, whom
the Saiva's confider as the Chief of the Deities,
was mount Caildfa, every fplinter of whofe
rocks was an ineftimable gem : his terreftrial
haunts are the fnowy hills of Himalaya, or that
branch of them to the Eaft of the Brahmapuira,
which has the name of Cbandrafid bara, or the
Mountain of the Moon. When, after all thefe
circ^inftances, we learn that Siva is believed
t(j| bave three eyes,- whence he is named alfo
TiiiLo'cHAN, and know from Pausanias,
not only that Triopbtbalmos was an epithet of

3A3

ITALT. Ay^ njDIA.

5 ^ US, 'but that a ftatufe hf iSm had been found,
fo early as the taking of Tw, with a third eye
in his forehead, as we' fee aim reprefented by
the Hindus, we ^nuft concliiSde, tl^at the identity
of the two Gods falls litt’/e fliort of being de-
monftrated.

In the character of Deji/vyer alfo we may
look upon this hclian Deitji/'as correfponding
with the Stygian Jove, or Pluto.; efpecia$y
fmce CA'Li', ai ftime in.thd'feminiAe gender, is
a name of his confort, who will appear liereafter
to be Proserpine : indeed, if we can rely on
a Perfian tranflation of the Bhdgavat (for the
original is not yet in my jpofleflion), the fo-
vereign of ‘Pdtdla, or the Infernal Regions, is
the Kifg of Serpefits, named Sesiiana ga ; for
Crishna is there faid to have defeended with
his favourite Arjun to the /eat.of that formi-
dable divirrity, h;om whom he inftantly obtained
the favour, wfaich'^J^u tliat the fouls of
a' Brahmans fix foris, who had been ids^in
jlMtttle, ipight reanimate their refpedive bodieijf-j
Sjb'SIuana'ga is thus deferibed : **110 had
^ ^ appearance, llith a thoufand heads,

'** und, on ea|^ of them, a crown-fet with re-
** fpWdent gms, one of which was larger and
“ brfgitter than-the^reft ; his eye’s gleamed like
flaming torches ; but .fiis neck, his tongues,
*' and his body were black ; the Ikirts of his

S 60 ON THE GOi^-S OF GREECE,

\ ■ 7*1

** habiliment were ,and a fparkling jewel

“ hung in every orfe of his ears j his arms-O^ere
** extended, and adorned with rich bracelets.

*' and his hands bore

“weapon, the macelfor war, and the lotos.”
Thus Pluto was often exhibited in painting
and fculpture with a diadem and Tceptre ; but
himfelf arid his equipage were of the blackeft
l|^ade. .

There is yet another attribute of Maiia'-
oe'va, by which he is too vilibly diftinguiflied
in the drawings and temples of Bengal. To
deftroy, according to the Veddnt'Cs of IndiUy the
Sufi’s of Pcrfia, and many Philofophcrs of our
European fchools, is only to -generate and re-
produce in another form : hence the God of
Dejlruction is holdcn in this country to prefide
over Qiencration ; as a fymbol of which he rides
on a xohite bull. Can we doubt, thar. the loves

the holy fliell, the radiated

and feats ofjvn rxiui Genitor (not forgetting
the xvbite bull of Euuopa) and his extraordinary
title of Lapis, for which no fatisfadtory reafon
is commonly given, have a connexion with the
Indian Philofophy and Mythology? As to the
deity of Lanipfucus, he was originally a mere'
fcafe-crow, and ought not to have a place in
any mythologfcal fyftem ; and, in regard tq
Bacchus, the God ol Vintage (between whofe
ads and thofe of Jupite-r we find, as Baco]^

ITALY, AKfi INDIA.

361

obferves, a wonderfulj afilnljy), his Jthypballick
images, meafures, an(| ceremonies alluded pro-
bably to the fuppofed relltion of Love and
Wine ; unlefs we believe them to have belonged
originally to Siva, one of whofe names is
Vdgis or B.i'ci's, and to have been afterwards
improperly applied. Though, in an Effay on the
Gods of India^ where the Briil^tians are pofitively
forbidd.cn to tafte fermented liquors, ”^6 can
have Utile to do with JBACCHUs,‘as C5od of
Wine, who . was probably no more than the ima-
ginary, Prefident over the vintage in Italy ^ Greece^
and the' lower yet we mull not omit Su-
ra'de'vi the Goddefs of Wine, who arofe, fay
the Hindus,. i'roTrf the ocean, when it was churn-
ed with the mountain Mandar: and this fable
feeras to indicate, that.the Indians came from a
country, in which wine was agiciently made and
confidered as a blelEng.; though the dangerous
effeifls of intemperanOe induced their early le-
gillators to prohibit the ufe of all fpirituous
liquors ; and it were much to be wilhed, that fo
a law had never been violated.

may be introduced the Jupiter Ma^
Neptune, of the Romans, as re&ni*
.bling Maua'de'va in h\& generative charadiec;
‘ 4 !;fpeeially as the Hindu God is the hufband of
BU ava'nI, whofe relation to the zvaiers is evi-
liehtfy marked by her image being reftored to

S 62 DN tH£ fftOlb? OF GREECll,

I"

them at the conclufil^n of her great feftival calie<).
Durgotjava : (he is Icnowr alfo to have attributes
exactly fimilar to thofe of Vejius Marina^
whofe birth from the fea-foam and fplendid rife
from the Conch, in which fhe had been cradled,
have afforded fo many charming fubjedis to
ancient and modern artifts ; and it is very re-
markable, that the JR. F, M B n of I N D ii -v’s court,
who feems to correfpond with the popular
Vknt/s, or Goddefs o£ Beauty, was produced,
according to the Indian Fabulifts, from the froth
of the churned ocean. The identity of the
trisiila and the trident, the weapon of Siva and
of Neptune, feems to eftatUfh this analogy;
and the veneration paid all ever India to the
large buccinum, efpccially when it can be found
with the fpiral line and mouth turned from left
to right, brings in,frantly to our mind the mufick
of Tuiton. The Genius of Water is Va-
KUNA ; but he, like the reft, is far inferior td
MaheVa, and even to Indra, who is the
Prince of the beneficent genii.

This way of confidering the Gods, as indi-
vidual fubftances, but as diftinft perfons in dif-
tindl chara£ters, is common to the European and
Indian fyftems ; as well as the cuftom of giving
the higheft of them the greateft number of
names : hence, not to jepeat what has been faid
of Jupiter, came the triple capacity of Diana;

ITALY, AND INDIA.

363

and hence her petition in Callimachus, that
fhe might be polyonymous or mcny-titled. The con-
fort of Si VA is more eminenly marked by thefe
diftindtions than tliofe of Brahma' or Vish-
nu : fhe refembles the Isis Myrionymos^tovihom
an ancient marble, defcribcd by Gruteu, is de-
dic ted; but her leading names and .charadfers
are Pa'rvatj, Du'/sga', BiiTi^VANf.

As the Mountain-horn Goddefs, or 'P/'.iivATi,
fhe has many properties’ of 'the Olympian Juno :
her majeftick deportment, high fpirit, and ge-
neral attributes are the fame ; and we find her
both on Mount Cafidfa, and at the banquets of
the Deities, unifc'rmly the companion of her
hufband. One circumftance in the parallel is
extremely lingular : fhe is ufually attended by
her fon C a'utice'ya, who rides on z peacock i
and, in fome drawings, his (Jwn robe feems to
be fpangled Vith eyes ; to which muft be added
that, in fome of her temples, a peacock^ without '
a rider, ftands near her image. Though Ca'r-
tice'ya, with his fix faces and numerous eyes,
bears fome refemblance to Argus, whom Juno
employed as her principal wardour, yet, as he is
a’Deky of the fecond clafs, and the Commander
of celeftial Armies, he feems clearly to be the
Orus of Egypt and the Mars of Italy: his
name Scanda, by which^ie is celebrated in one

t

of the Piirdnas, has a connexion, I am peifuaded.

VOL. I. c c

364 ON THE GODS OF GREECE,

with the old Sec an deb, of Perjia^ whom the
poets ridiculoufly confound with the ‘Mace-
donian. \

The attributes of'-DuRGA', or D^cult of ac-
cefs, are alfo confpicuous in the feftival above-
mentioned, which is called by her name, and in
this charadter £he refembles Minerva, not the
peaceful inventrefs of the foie and ufeful arts,
but Pa EE AS, armed with a helmet and fpear:
both reprefent hcroick Virtue, or Valour united
with Wifclom ; both flew Demons and Giants
with their own hands, and both protedted the
wife and virtuous, who paid ihem due adoration.
As Pallas, they fay, takes Iher name from vi-
brating a lance, and ufually appears in complete
armour, thus Cures, the o\CLP,atian word for a
fpear, was one of Juno’s titles j and fo, if Gi-
RALDus be correct, was Hoplosmia, which at
Elis, it feems, meant a female drefled in panoply
, or complete accoutrements. The unarmed Mi-
nerva of the Romans apparently correfponds,
*as patronefs of Science and Genius, with Seres-
WATi, the wife of Brahma', and the emblem
of his principal Creative Power: both goddelTes
have given their names to celebrated grammatical
works; but the Sdrefwata of Saru'pa'cha-
RYA is far more concife as well as more ufeful
and agreeable than thje Minerva of Sanctius.
The Minerva of Italy invented the flute, and

ITALY, AND INDIA.

• 365

SeReswati prefides over melody: the proteft-
refs of . Athens was even, on the fame account,
furnamed Music e'.

Many learned MyfhologlCts, with Gir Aldus
at their head, confider the peaceful Minerva as
the Isis of Egypt ; from whofe temple at Sais a
wonderful infcription is quoted by Plutarch,
which has a refemljisnce to thefbur Sanfcrii verfes
above exhibited as the text of the Bb/rgAval :
“ I am' all, that hath been, and is, ahd (hall be ;
“ and my veil no mortal hath ever removed.”
For my part I have no doubt, that the iswA ija
and isi of the Hindis arc the Osiris and Isis of
the Egyptians', though a diftindl eflay in the man-
ner of Plutarch would be requifite in order to
demonftrate their^ identity : they mean, I con-
ceive, the Powers of Nature conlidered as Alale
and Female; and Isis, like th^ other goddefles,
reprefents the active power of her lord, whofe
eight forms, under which he becomes vifiblc to
man, were thus enumerated by Cali da's a near
two thoufand years ago : “ JVatcr was the firll
“ wprk of the Creator ; and Eire receives the
“ oblation of clarified butter, as the law ordains ;
''*■ the Sacrifice is performed with folemnity ; the
“ two Lights of heaven diftingniflr time ; the
“ fubtll Ethel’, which is the vehicle of found,
“ pervades the univerfe the Earth is the na-
" tural parent of all increafe j and by Air all

c c 2

366 ON THE GODS OF GREECE,

“ things breathing are animated: may is a, the
“ power propitioufly apparent in thefe eight
“ forms, blefs and fuftain you !” The Jive ele-
ments, therefore, as-well as the Sun and Moon,
are confidered as isA or the Ruler^ from
which word isi may be regularly formed, though
iSA Ni be the ufual name of his active PoweVy
adored as the Goddefs of Nature. I have not
yet found in Sanferit the wild, though poetical,
tale of lo ; but am perfuaded, that, by means of
the Purdms, we ftiall in time difeover all the
learning of the Egyptians without decyphering
their hieroglyphicks : the buli| of Is war a feems
to be Arts, or Ar, as he is more corretStly
named in the true reading of a paflage in Jk re-
mi a it ; and, if the veneration Ihown both in
Tibet and India to fo amiable and ufeful a qua-
druped as the Cow, together with the regeneration
of the Lama hiinfelf, have not fome affinity
.with the religion of Egypt and the idolatry of
Ifraely we muft at leaft allow that circumftances
have wonderfully coincided. Bhava n'i now
demands our attention j and in this- charafler I
fuppofe the wife of Maiia'dk'va to be as well
the Jcxo Cinxia or Lucina of the Romans
(called alfo by them Diana Solvizonay and by
the Greeks Ilitiiyia) as Venus herfelf ; not
the Idalian queen of laughter and jollity, who,
with her Nyinphs and Graces, was the beautiful

ITALY, AND INDIA.

3C7

child of poetical imagination, and anfwers to the
with her celeftial train of Ap-
fara’s, or dumfels of paradifc ; but Ven us Uni-
Ilia, fo luxuriantly painted by LiicUE’j'i us, and
fo properly invoked by him at the opening of a
poem on nature; Venus, prefiding over gene-
ralion, and, on that account, exhibited fometimes
of both fexes (aip-union very-common in the In-
dian fculpturcs), as in her bearded ftatue at Rome,
in the images perhaps called Hermatbena, and in
thofc figures of her, which had the, form of a
conical marble ; “ for the reafon of which figure
“ we are left, fays 'rACiTUs, in the dark the
reafon appears too clearly in the temples and
paintings of -Hindujian ; where it never feems to
have entered the heads of the legiflators or people
that any thing natural could be offenfively ob-
fcenc ; a fingularity, which tpervades all their
writings and converfation, but is no proof of de-
pravity in their morals. Both Plato and Ci—
c.eho fpeak of Kuos, or the Heavenly Cue id,
as the fon of Venus and Jieitek; whicli
proves, that the monarch of Olympus and the
Goddefs of Fecundity were conneded as Ma-
ha'de'va and Biiava'ni: the God Ca'm.a,
indeed, had Ma ya' and Casyap.a, or I ranus,
for his parents, at leaft according to the Mytho-
logifts of Cajhmir-, but, in^moft refpefts, he feems
the twill-brother of Cupid with richer and more

368 ON THE GODS OF GREECE,

lively appendages. One of his many epithets is
Dipaca, the Inflamer, which is erroneoully writ-
ten Dipuc ; and I am now convinced, that the
fort of refemblance, which has been obferved
between his Latin and Sanferit names, is ac-
vidental : in each name the three firft letters are
ihe root, and between them there is no affinity.
Whether anv Mythological *c‘diinc£tion fubfifted
between the atnaracus, with the fragrant leaves
of which Hymkn bouhd his temples, and the
tulasi of India, muft be left undetermined : the
botanical relation of the two plants (if amaracus
be properly tranflated marjh'am) is extremely
near.

One of the moft remarkable ceremonies, in
the feftival of the Indian Goddefs, is that before-
mentioned of calling her image into the river :
the Pandits, of whom I inquired concerning its
origin and import, anfwered, “ that"it was pre-

feribed by the VMa, they knew not why
but this cullom has, I conceive, a' relation to
the dodtrinCi that water is a form of Is war a,
and confequently of isa'nI, who is even repre-
fented by feme as .the patronefs of that element,
to which her figure is reftored, after having re-
ceived all due honours on earth, which i» con-
lidered as another form of the God of Nature,
though fubfequent, inthe order of Creation, to
the prime^^al, fluid. There feems no decifive

ITALY, AND INDIA.

369

proof of one original fyftem among Idolatrous
nations in the worfhip of river-gods and river-
goddefles, nor in the homage paid to their
ftreams, and the ideas of purification annexed
to them : fince Greeks, Italians, Egyptians, and
Hindus might (without any communication with
each other) have adored the feveral diyinities of
their great rivers, from which they derived plea-
fure, health, and abundance. The nqtidn of
Dodor Muse RAVii, that large rivers were fup-
pofed, from their ftrength and rapidity, to be
conduded by Gods, while rivulets only were
proteded by female deities, is, like moll other
notions of Grammarians on the genders of
nouns, overthrown by fads. Moll of the great
Indian rivers are- feminine ; and the three god-
defles of the v/aters, whom the Hindus chiefly
venerate, areG.\.\GA', who fprang, like armed
Pallas, from the head of the Indian Jovk;
Yamuna', daughter of the Sun, and Slrks-.
WA rl : all three meet at Praydga, thence called
Trivmi, or the three plaited locks', butSEUES-
WAtl, according to the popular belief, finks
under ground, and riles at another Trivmi near
Hiigli, where Ihe rejoins her beloved Gang a'.
The Brahmaputra is, indeed, a male river; and,
as his name fignifies the Son of Brahma', I
thence took occafion to feign that he was mar-
ried to Gang a', though I have not yet feen any

370 ON THE GODS OF GREECE,

mention of him, as a. God, in the Sanjcrit
books.

Two incarnate deities of the firft rank, Ra-
ma and Cj.’isiiNA, muft now be introduced,
and their feveral attributes diftindly explained.
The firll of them, I believe, was the Dionysos
of the Greeks, whom they named Bromius,
without knowing why, and Bugenj'.s, when
they reprefented him horned, as well as Lvaios
and El r u r n k u lo s, the Deliverer, and Tu r a m-
Bosor DiTiiYiiAaii’.os, the Triumphant: moft
of thofe titles were adopted by the Romatis, by
whom he was called Buuma, Tag ripoumis.
Liber, Triumph us; and both nations had
records or traditionary accounts of his giving
laws to men and deciding their contefts, of his
improving navigation and commerce, and, what
may appear yet more obfervable, of his eon-
quering India and other countries with an army
.of Satyrs^ commanded by no lefs a perfonage
than Pan } whom Lilius Giraldus, on
what authority I know not, aflerts to have re-
fided in Iberia, “ when he had returned, fays
“ the learned Mythologift, from the Indian war,
“ in which he accompanied Bacchus.” It
were fuperfluous in a mere elTay, to run any
length in the parallel between this European
God and the fovereigs of Ayodhyd^ whom the
Hindus believe to have been an appearance on

ITALY, AND INDIA,

371

earth of the Preferving Power ; to have been a
Conqueror of the higheft renown, and the De-
liverer of nations from tyrants, as well as of
his confort Sita' from the’giant Ra'van, king
of Lancd, and to have co’mma:idcd in chief a
numerous and intrepid race of thofe large
keys, which our naturalifls, or fomj; of them,
have denominated '///rZ/hw Satyrs: his General,
the Prince of Satyrs, was named Ha.ni mat,
or xvitb high cheeky boric s-, and. u Irh" workmen
of fuch agility, he foon raifed a bridge of rocks
over the fea, part of which, fay the Hindus,
yet remains ; and it is, probably, the feries of
rocks, to which the Mufehnans or the Poitugucfc
have given the foolifh name of Aj)am’s (it
Ihould be called R vm.a’s) bridge. Alight not
this army of Satyrs have been only a race of
mountaineers, whom R if Inch a monarch
ever exifte’d, had civilized ? However that may
be, the large breed of In. ian Apes is at this
moment held in high veneration by the Hin-
dus, and fed with d vodon by the Brdbmxns,
who feem, in two or three place.s on the banks
of the G./ng. s, to have a regular endowment
for the fupport of :nem; they live in tribes of
three or four hundred, ar.* wonderfully gentle
(i fpeak '3 an ey e-vvitnels), and ;ippe <r to have
fome kind of ouler anti* fu’*o) '.inatu/:j in il.cir
little fyiv.Lii polity. Wc mull not that

S72 ON THE GODS OF GREECE,

the father of Ilammat was the God of Wind,
named Pa van, one of the eight Genii; and,
as Pa n improved the pipe by adding fix reeds,
and “ played exquifitely on the cithern a few
“ moments after Iiis birth,” fo one of the four
fyftems of Indian mufick bears the name of
H\ N u M AT, or 1 1 A N u M A N in the nominative, as
its inventor, and is nbw in general eftimation.

The war of hanen is dramatically reprefented
at the fefliv'al of Ra'aia on the ninth day of
the new moon of Chaitra ; and the drama con-
cludes (fays Holm’ki,, who had often feen it)
with an exhibition of the fire-ordeal, by which
the vidor’s wife Sit a' gave proof of her con-
nubial fidelity : “ the dialogue, he adds, is taken
“ from one of the Eighteen holy books,” mean-
ing, I fuppofe, the Vitrdnas \ but the Hindus
have a great number of regular dramas at leaft
two thoufand years old, and among them are
fiivcral very fine ones on the llory of Ra‘sia.
The firft poet of the Hindus was the great
VaT-auc', and his Kdmdyan is an Epic Poem
on the fame fubjed, which, in unity of’ adidn,
magnificence of imagery, and elegance of ftyle,
far furpnfles the learned and elaborate work of
Novves, entitled Dia/njiaca, half of which, or
twenty-four books, I perufed with great eager-
nefs, when 1 was very young, and fhould have
travelled to the conclufion of it, if other pur-

ITALY, and INDIA. 373

fults had not engaged me: I fhall never have
leifure' to compare the Dionyjiacks with the
Rdmdyan^ but am confident, that an accurate
comparifon of the two poems would prove
D roNYsos and Ra'ma to have been the fame

N *

perfon ; and , I incline to think, tlia^ he was
Ra'ma, the fon of Cu'sii, who might have
eftablilhed the. ‘firlt regular* government in this
part of /IJia. I had almoft forgotten, that
Meros is faid by the' Greeks to have been a
mountain of India, on which their ’Dio n yso.s
was born, and that Meru, though it generally
means the north pole in the hidian geography,
is alfo a moyntain near the city of Naifiada or
Nyfa, called by the Grecian geographers Diofiy-
fopolis, and univerfally celebrated in the Sanferit
poems; though the birth place of Ra'.ma is
fuppofed to have been Ayodt^’d or Andh. That
ancient city extended, if we believe the Brdh-
mans, over a line of ten Tojans, or about forty
miles, and the prefent city of Laebnau, pro-
nounced Luctmv, was only a lodge for one of
its 'gates, called Lacjbmanadzvdra, or the gate of
Lacs II MAN, a brother of Ra'ma: M.Sox-
nkkat i'uppofes Ayodhyd to have been Siam ^
a moft erroneous and unfounded fuppofition !
which would have been , of little confequence,
if he had not grounded dn argument on it, that
Ra'ma was the fame perfon with Buddha,

374

ON THE GODS OF GREECE,

who muft have appeared many centuries after
the conqueft of Lancd.

The fecond great divinity, Cm sun a, pafled
a life, according to the Indiam, of a moft ex-
trordinary and incomprehenfible nature. He was
the fon.pf D.'/vAci by Vasud'kva; but his
birth was concealed through fear of the tyrant
Cansa, to whom it had been, predidled, that
a child born at that time in that family would
deftroy him : he was foftcred, therefore, in Mai’-
burd by an.honeft herdfman, furnamed Anan-
DA, or Happy, and his amiable wife Yaso'da’,
who, like another Pales, was conftantly oc-
cupied in her paftures and her dairy. In their
family were a multitude of young Gopas or Cow-
herds, and beautiful Gopi's, or fnilkmaids, who
were his playfellows during his infancy ; and, in
his early youth, he feleded nine damfels as his
favourites, with whom he paffed his' gay hours
in dancing, fporting, and playing on his flute.
For the remarkable number of his Gdpis I have
no authority but a whimfical picture, where nine
girls are grouped in the form of an elephant,' on
which he fits and pipes ; and, unfortunately, the
word nava fignifies both nine and new or young;
lb that, in the following ftanza, it may admit of
f.yro interpretations :

taran'ijdpuline ndvaballavi

pmfudd faba celicutuhaldt

ITALY, AND INDIA.

375

/Jrutavilamwitacharuvihdrinam
■ herimahatn hrfday^na Jadd vahc.

“ I bear in my bofom continually that God.
‘‘who, for fportive recreation with a train of
“ nine (young) dairy-maids, dances gracefully,
‘‘ now quick now flbw, on the fand| juft left
“ by the Daughter of the Sun.” /

Both he andjthevthree Ra'mas are deferibed
as youths of perfed beauty ; but the princefles
of Hindiift^ as well ’as the damlels of Nan-
DA*s farny^ ^e re palllonately in .love with
Crisiina, who continues to this hour the dar-
ling God of the Indian women. The fed of
Hindus^ who adore him with enthufiaftick, and
almoft exclufive, devotion, have broached a
dodrine, which they maintain with cagernefs,
and which feems general in thefe provinces ;
that he was diftind from aH> the- Avatars, who
had only dn anfa, or portion, of his divinity ;
while Crisiina was the per Jon of VisHNir-
hitnfelf in a human form : hence they confidcr
dit third Ra ma, his elder brother, as the eighth
Jt&cddr invefted with xa, anmedion of his divine
. iddiance ; and, in the principal Sanferit die-
tioniuy, comjaied about two thoufand years ago,
CilisuNA, Va'sadr'va,Go'vikda, and other
flames of the Shepherd God, are intermixed
with epithets of Naiia'yan, or the Divine
Spirit. All the Avatars are painted with gem-

376

ON THE GODS OF GREECE,

med Ethiopian^ or Parthiany cor6nets; tvithrays
encircling their heads ; jewels in their ears ; two
necklaces, one ftraight, and one pendent on their
bofoms with dropping gems ; garlands of well-
difpofed many-coloured flowers, or collars of
pearls, hpiging down below their waifts ; loofe
mantles ' Y^f golden tiffue or dyed' filk, embroi-
dered on their hems with flowers, elegantly
thrown over one flioulder, and folded, like
ribbands, acrofs the breafl; ; with j^acglets too
on one arm, and on each wfift : they, are naked
to the waifts, and uniformly ■^Ith dark azure
ilefh, in allufion, probably, to the tint of that
primordial fluid, on which Na ra'yan moved
in the beginning of time ; but their fkirts are
bright yellow, the colour of the curious peri-
carpium in the centre of the water-lily, where
Nature^ as Dr. Murray obferves, in fame de-
gree dijclofes her fecrets, each feed containing,
before it germinates, a few perfeeff leaves ; they
arc fometimes drawn w'ith that flower in one
hand ; a radiated elliptical ring, ufed as a miflile
weapon,, in a fecond ; the facred fhell,; or Ipft-
handed buccinum, in a third; and a mace or
battle-ax, in a fourth; but Crisu.na, when*
he appears, as he fometimes does appear, among
the Avatars, is more fplendidly decorated than.-
any, and wears a rich 'garland of fylvan flowers',
whence he is named Vanama'li, as low as

311

ITALY, AND INDIA.

his ankles, which ar^ adorned with firings of
pearls.. Dark blue, approaching to blacky which
is the meaning of the word Crijbna, is believed
to have been his complexion ; and hence the
large bee of that colour is .confecrated to him,
and is often drawn , fluttering over'^his.' head :
that azure tint, which approaches to hlacknefs,
is peculiar, as we have already remarked, to
VrsHA'u and hence, in the great .refervoir or
ciftern at Cdtmdn^u the capital of* Nepal, there
is placed ^ a recumbent poflure a Jarge well-
' proportionea image of blue marble, reprefenting
Na'ha VAX floating on the waters. But let us
return to the a<3:ions of Cm sun a; vdio was
not lefs heroick, than lovely, and, when a boy,
flew the terrible ferpent Cdliya with a number
of giants and monfters: at a more advanced
age, he put to death his crufl cijemy Cans a ;
and, having taken under his prote£lion the king
Yuiju isii r’jt III and the other Pandas, who had
been grievou fly oppreffedby the Curtis, and theici
tyrannical chief, he kindled the war deferibed in
the.great Epick Poem, entitled the Mahdhbarat,
at the profperous conclufion of which he return-
•ed to his heavenly feat inJdaicont' ha, having left
the inftrudlions comprifed in the Gita with his
difconfolate friend Arjun, whole grandfon be-
came fovereign of India.

In this pidlufe it is impofllble not to difeover.

378 ON THE aODS OF GREECE,

at the firll glance, the features of Apollo^
furnamed Nomios, or the Vq/foral, in Greece,
and O p i !• K i{ in Italy ; who fed the herds of
Admetus, and flew the fcrpent Python-, a
God amorous, beautiful, and warlike : the word
Govinda may be literally tranflated NoiUios, as
Cefuva, is- Crinilus, or with fine hair ; but whe-
ther Gopdia, or the herdfman, has any relation
to ylpoVo, let our Etymologifts dfctergrine. Co-
lonel VAL’.tNCf.y, whofe Jcarned enquiries

ft*

into the ancient literature of Ireland are highly
interelling, afliires me, that X'rfjhna in Irijh
means the Sun; and we find Apollo and
Sol confidered by the Rmnan poets as the fame
deity: I am inclined, indeed, to believe, that
not only Crishn a or Vishnu, but cvcft Brah-
ma' and Siva, when united, and eNpreffed by
the Inyftical word O M, were defigned by the
firft idolaters to reprefent the Solar fire; but
Phceb us, or the orb of the Sun perfonified, is
^^dored by the Indians as the God Su'rya,
whence the fe<3:, who pay him particular ador-
ation, are called Sauras : their poets and paint-
ers deferibe his car as drawn by feven green
horfes, preceded by Ar.UN, or the Dawn, wdio
afls as liis charioteer, and followed by thoufands
of Genii worfhipping him and modulating his
praifes. He has a inultitude of names, and
among them twelve epithets' or titles, which

ITALY, AND INDIA. 379

denote his diftinft I>ozvcj ^ in each of the twelve
months : thofe pozvers arc’called Adityas, or fons
of Aditi by Caryapa, the Indian Uranus;
and one of them has, accordi^ig to fome autho-
rities, the name of Vishnu or Pervader. Su-
rya is believed to have defeended frequently
from his car in 4 human fliape, and to hav^ left
a race on earth, who are equally renowned in
the Indian ftories with the Hihiadai of Greece:
it is very fingular, that his two fons, called As-
winau or Aswini'cuma'rau, in the dual,
Ihould be conllderell as twin-brothers, anil paint-
ed like Castor and ’Pollux, but they have
each the charader of i£scuLAPius among the
Gods, and are ’believed to have been born of a
nymph, who, in the form of a mare, was im-
pregnated with fuh-bcams. I fufped the whole
fable of Casyapa and his progeny to be aftro-
nomical ; aqd cannot but imagine, that the
Greek name Cassiopeia has a relation to it.
Another great Indian family are called the
Children of the MooHy or Chandra ; who is
a male Deity, and confequcntly not to be com-
pared with Artemis or Diana; nor have
I yet found a parallel in I^^a for the Goddefs
of the Chafe, who feems to havc'been the daugh>-
ter of an European fancy, and very naturally
created by the invention of Bucolick and Geor-
gick poets : yet,* fince the Moon is a form of

VOL. i. ’ D D

^0

ON THE GODS OF GREECE,

I'swARA, the God of Nature, according to th^*
verfe of Ca'lida'sa, and fmce i'sa'ni has been
Ihown to be his confort or power, we may con-
fider her, in one of her charadlers, as Luna ;
efpecially as we fliall foon be convinced that, in
the fhades below, flie correfponds with the
Hecate of Europe.

The worflaip of Solar, or Veftal, Eire may be
afcribed, like that of Osiris and Isis, to the
fccohd fource of mythology, or an enthufiaftick.
admiration of Nature’s wonderful powers ; and
5t feems,‘<ts far as I can yet underftahd the Vedus,
to be the principal worfhip recommended in
them. We have feen, that Maha'de'va him-
felf is perfonated by Fire ; but, fubordinate to
him, is the God Agni, often called Pa'vaca,
or the Purifier, who anfwers to the Vulcan of
Egypt, where he was a Deity of high rank ;
and his wife Swa ha' refembles the younger
Vesta, or Vestia, as the Eolians pronounced
the Greek word for a hearth: Biiava'ni, or
•Venus, is the confort of the Supreme De-
ftrudtive and Generative Power ; but the Greeks
and Romans, whofe fyftem is lefs regular than
that of the Indians, married her to their divine
artifi, whom^jej alTo named Hephaistos and
Vulcan, ^ who feems to be the Indian
ViswACARMAN, the Jofger of arms for the
Gods, and inventor bf the agi^yafira, or fury

391

irALY, AND INDIA.

jhiift, in the war betw’(^n them and the Daityas
or Titans. It is not eafy here to refrain from
obferving (and, if the obfervation give offence
in England, it is contrary to* my intention) that
the newly difeovered planet Ihould unqueftion-
ably be named Vul'can ; fince the tonfufion
of analogy in* the names of the planets is in-
elegant; unfcholarly, and u^iphilofopliical : the
name Uranus is appropriated to the firmament;
but Vulcan, tite floweft of* the Gods, and,
according Jo the Egyptian priefts, the^oldeft of
them, agrees admirably with an orb, which
inuff perform its revolution in a very long pe-
riod ; and, by giving it this denomination, we
Ihall have . feveri primary planets with the
names of as many limnan Deities, MfiRCURy,
Venus, Tfii-Lus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn,
Vulcan. •

It has already been intimated, that the Musks
and Nymphs are the Ga'infA of Mall/urdy and
of GovcrdJjan, the Vdrnajfus of the Hindus', and,
the lyrick poems of Jayadeva yvHI fully
juftify this opinion ; but the Nymphs of Mnfick
are the thirty Ra'gini's or Female. PaJJions,
tvhofc various functions 'aa>d properties are fo
richly delineated by the Indian painters and lb
finely deferibed by the poets ; but I will not
anticipate what w’ill requijfe a feparate Effay, by
enlarging here cm the beautiful allegories of the

* D D 2

- 382

ON THE CODS OF GREECE,

Hindus in their fyftem of mufical modes, which
they call Ra'ga's, or Pajfions^ and fuppofed to
be Genii or Demigods. A very diftinguifhed
fon of Brahma', 'named Na'rrd, whofe ac-
tions are the fubje<St of a Purdna, bears a ftrong
refemhlaiice to Hermes or Mercury : he was
a wife Icgiflator, great in arts ahd in arms, an
eloquent meffenger, of the. Gods either to one
another or to favoured mortals, and a mufician
of exquifite • Ikill ; his invention of the Vim,
or Indian lute, is thus deferibed in the poem
entitled Mdgha: “ Na'rrd fat watching from
“ time to time his large Vina, which, by the
“ impulfe of the breeze, yielded notes, that
“ pierced fucceflively the regions . of his ear,
“ and proceeded by mufical intervals.” The
law trad, fuppofed to' have been revealed by
Na'red, is at thif hour cited by the Pandits i
and we cannot, therefore, believe him to have
^ been the patron of Thieves ; though an inno-
Wht theft of Crishna’s cattle, by way of put-
ting his divinity to a proof, be ftrangely imputed^
in the Bbdgavat, to his father Brahma’.

The laft of the Greek or Italian divinities,
for whom we find ^Tparallel in the Pantheon oF
India^ is the Stygian or Taurick Diana, tnher-
wiie named Hecate, and often confounded
with .‘Proserpine j and there can be no doubt
of hcR^dentity with Ca'li , or fhe wife of Siva

ITALY, AND INDIA.

383

m his charader of the Stygian Jove. To this
black Goddefs with a collar of golden fkulls,
as we fee her exhibited in ^11 her principal tem-
ples, human facriJiTes were anciently offered, as
the Vedas eftypined but, in the prefent age, they
are abfolutely^prohibited, as are alfo the lacrifices
of bulls and Horfes : kids are (lill offered to her ;
and, to palliate the cruelty of the flaughter,
which gave fuch offence to BynDHA, the Brah-
mans inculcate a belief, that the poor vidims rife
in the he*aven of In dr a, where they become
the muficians of his band. Inftcad of the ob-
folete, and now illegal, facrifices of a man, a bull,
and a horfe,. called NeramMha, Gomidha, and
yis'wamedha, the powers of nature are thought
to be propitiated by the lefs bloody ceremonies
at the end of autumn, when the fcftivals of
Cali' and Lacshmi' are fdlemhized nearly at
the fame time : now, if it be alked, how the
Goddefs of Death came to be united with the*
mild patronefs of Abundance, I muff propole
another queltion, “ How came Proserpine to
“ be repreiented in the European fyftem as the
daughter of Ceres ?” Pajiaps. both queftions
may be anfwered by the propolition of natural
philofophers, that “ the apparent'deftrudion of
“ a fubftance is the produdion of it in a dif-
“ ferent form.’.’ .The vAld mufick of Cali’s
priefts at one of her feftivals brought inftantly

384

ON THE GODS OF GREECE,

tQ 'my recolledion the 'Scythian meafurcs of
Diana’s adorers in the fplcndid opera of Iphi-
GENIA in TanriSy which Glttck exhibited at
Paris with lefs genius, indeed, than art, but with
every advantage that an orcheftra-eculd fupply.

That vte may not difinifs this affemblage of
Kuropean and Jijiatick divinities with a fubjeit
fo horrid as the altars of Hecate and Ca'ei',
let us conclude wnth two remarks, which pro-
perly, indeed, belong to the Indian Philofophy,
with which we are not at prefent concerned.
Firft ; Klyjium (not the place, but the blifs en-
joyed there, in which fenfe Milton ufes the
word) cannot but appear, as'defcribed by the
poets, a very tedious and infipid kind of enjoy-
ment: it is, however, more exalted than the
temporary Elyjium in the court of Indra, where
the pleafures, as in Muhammed’s paradife, are
wholly fenfual ; but the MuSliy or Elyjian hap-
‘ pinefs of the Vedanta School is far more fublime;
for they reprefent it as a total abforption, though
not fuqh as tp deftroy confeioufnefs, in the.di-.
vine efleqee ; but, for the reafon before fug-
gefted, I fay no mere of this idea of beatitude,
and forbear touching on the dodtrine of tranf-
migration and the llmilarity of the Vedanta to
the Sicilian, Italick, and old Jcadcmick Schools.

' V

Secondly; in the myftical and elevated cha-
ja^er of Pan, as a perfonification of the Uni^

ITALY, AND INDIA. 98S

Tcrfe, according to tlie notion of lord Bacon,
there arifes a fort of fimilitude between him arid

Crishna confidcred as Na'ra'yan. The Gre-

% •

dan god plays divinely on his reed, to exprefs,
we are toljd,^ etherkl harmony ; he has his at-
tendant Nymphs of the paftures and the-xlairy ;
his face is as iVdiant as the Iky, and his head il-
lumined with. the horns of a crefeent; whilft
his lower extremities are deformed arid, ffiaggy,
as a fymbol of the -vegetables, v^icH the earth
produces^ and of the beafts, who roam over the
face of it : now we may compare this portrait,
partly with the general charafter of Crishna,
the Shepherd God, and partly with the deferip-
tion in the Bbdgavat of the divine fpirit ex-
hibited in the fom of this Univerfal World) to
which we may add the following ftory fi-om the
fame extraordinary poem. ’The Nymphs had
complained toYAso DA', that the child Crishna
had been drinking their cui'ds and milk : on.
being reproved by his fofter-mother for this in-'
diferetion, he requelled her to examine his mouth;
in -which, to her juft amazement, Ihe beheld the
zvbole uuiverfe in all its plenitude* of mag-
nificence.

We mull not be furprized at. finding, on a
clofe examination, that the charaflers of all the
pagan deities, male and'female, melt into each
other, and at laft into one or two ; for it feems

886 ON THE GODS OF GREECE,

a well-founded opinion,, that the whole crowd
of gods and goddefles in ancient Rome, and mo-
dern FiirdneSy mean only the powers of nature,
and principally thofe of the' Su N, exprefifed in a
variety of ways and by a multitude yof fanciful
names.

Thus have I attempted to trace,, impcrfetSlly at
prefent for want of ampler materials, but with a
confidence continually increafing as 1 advanced,
a parallel between the Gods adored in three very
different nations, Greece.^ li.ily, .aiid India ; but,
which was the original fyflem and which the
copy, I will not prefumc to decide ; nor are we
likely, I believe, to be foon furniflicd with fuf-
ficient grounds for a dccifion : the fundamental
rule, that natural, and mojl human, operations pro-
ceed from the Jimple to the compound, will afford
no alTiflance on this point ; fince neither tlie
jIJiatick nor European fyllem has any' firaplicity
in it j and both are fo complex, not to fay ab-
■furd, however intermixed with the beautiful and
the fublime, that the honour, fucli as it is, of the
invention cannot be allotted to either with tole-
rable certainty.

Since Egypt appears to have been the grand
fburce of knowledge for the ivejlern, and India
for the more eajiern, parts of the globe, it may
feem a material queftion, whether the Egyptians
communicated their Mythology and Philofophy

ITALY, and INDIA.

S87

to the Hindus^ or conyerfely ; but what the leafn-
ed of -Memphis wrote or faid concerning India,
no mortal knows : and what the learned of VA-
rdnes have aflerted, if any thing, concerning
Egypt, can give us little Idtisfadion : fuch cir-
cumftantial evidence on this queftion .as'I have
been able to c\Dlle£l, fliall neverthelefs be dated j
becaufe, unfatisfadory as 'it is, there may be
fomethjng in it not wholly unworthy ojf riotice;
though after* all, whatever colojjfics may have
come frohl the to the Ganges, wc* fliall, per-
haps, agree at lafl: with Mr. Bryant, that
Egyptians, Indians, Greeks, and ItalioJis, pro-
ceeded originally from one central place, and
that the fdme people carried their religion and
fciences into ^bina and ’Japan: may we not
add, even to Mexico and Peru ?

Every one knows, that thft true name of Egypt
is Mis'r, ‘fpelled with a palatial dbilant both in
Hehreiv and Arabick: it feems in Hebrew to
have been the proper name of the fird fettler in
it ; and, when the Arabs ufe the word for a great
city, they probably mean a city like the capital of
Egypt. . Father Marco, 'Miffionary,

who, though not a fcholar of the fird rate, i§ in-
capable, I am perfuaded, of deliberate falfehood,
lent me the lad book of a Rdmayan, which he
had tranflated. through ^hc Hindi into his native
language, and with it a fhort vocabulary of My-

S8« ON THE GODS-OF GREECE,

thologlcal andHiftorical tiames, which had been
explained to him by the 'Pandits of Betiya,'v}\iQXQ
he had long refided, : one of the articles in hia
little didionary was, ** Tirut, a town and pro^
“ vince, in which the priefts frogj 'Egypt fet-
tied j” and, when I alhed him, what name
Egypt bore among the Hindus, he4iid Misfr, but
obferved, that they fometimes • confounded it
with Abyjfmia. I perceived, that his memory of
what he had v^itten was correft ; for Mis'r was
another wdrd in his index, “ from which coun-
‘‘ try, he faid, came the Egyptian priefts, who
“ fettled in Tirut." I fufpeded immediately,
that his intelligence flowed from the Mtifelmans^
who call fugar-candy Mifri or Egyptian-, but,
when I examined him clofely, and earneftly de-
llred him to recoiled from whom he had re-
ceived his information, he repeatedly and po-
litively declared, that " it had been given him
by feveral Hindus, and particularly by a Brdh-
** man, his intimate friend, who was reputed a
confiderable Pandit, and had lived three years
“ near his houfe.” We then conceived, that the
feat of his Egyptian^Xonj muft have been Ti-
rdbit^ commonly pronounced Tirut, and anciently
called Mifbila, . the principal town of Janaca-
des'a, or north Babar; but Mahe'sa Pandit,
W'ho was born in that very diftrid, and who fub-
putted patiently to a long examination conceru^

ITAI.Y, AND INDIA. 9S«

Ing Mis'r, overfct all oUr conclufions •. Ke denied,
that the Brahmans of his country were generally
furnamed Misr, as we had, been informed ; and
faid, that the addition of Misr A to the name of
Va'chesp'pti, and other learned authors, was a
title formerly conferred on the writers of miscel-
lanies^ or coii^pihrs of various trafts on religion
or fcience, the Xvor’d being** derived from a root
fignifying to mix. Being afked, where the
country of Misr was, “ dlicre ;^c two, lie an-
fwered, of thatt name ; one of them in the zccjl
f‘ under the dominion of Mufelmdns, and an-k
other, wdiich all the Sdjtras and Vurdnas men-
“ tion, in a* mountainous region to the north of
ytyodhyd it is evident, that by the firft he
meant Egypt, but what he meant by the fecond,
jt is not .cafy to afeertain. A country, called
Tiruhut our geographers* appears in the maps
between the north -eaftern frontier of Aiidh and
the mountains of Nepal ; but whether that was
the Tirut mentioned to father Marco by his
friend .of Bcliya, I cannot decide. This only I
know with certainty, that Mifra is an epithet of
two Brahmans in the drama of Sacontala',
which w'as written near a century before, the
birth of Christ ; that fome of the greateft law-
yers, and two of the fineft dramatick poets, of In-
dia have the lame title ;*that we hear it frequent-
ly in court added to the names of Hindu parties;
and that none of the Bandits, whom I hayje fince

390

ON THE (Jobs, of Greece.

confulted, pretend to know the true meaning of
the word, as a proper name, or to give any other
explanation of it than that it is a Jumame oj
Brahmans in Lhe xvejl. On the account given to
Cofonel Kyd by the old Raja of Crijbnanagar,
“ concerning traditions among the Hindus, tliat
“ fome Egyptians had fettled in iijis country,” I
cannot rely ; becaufe; I am credibly informed by
fome of the RdjiYs own family, that he was not
a man of folidv^earning, though he.poflblTed cu-
rious books, and had been attentive to' the con-
verfation of learned men : befides, I know that
his fon and moft of his kinfmen have been dab-
blers in Perjian literature, and belieye them very
likely, by confounding one fource of information
■with another, to puzzle themfelves, and miflead
thofe with whom they converfe. The word
Mi’s';', fpelled alfo imSanJcrit With, a palatial fibi-
lant, is very remarkable ; and, as far as Etymo-
logy can help us, we may fafely derive Nilus
from the Sanferit word nila, or blue ; fince Dio-
Kvsius exprefsly calls the waters of that river
“ an aiiure ftream and, if we can depend on
Marco’s Italian verfion of the Rdmdyan, the
name of A //u is given to a lofty and facred moun-
tain with a fummit of pure gold, from which
flowed a river of deary Jzveety and frejb water.
M. SoNNERAT refers to a diflertation by Mr.
ScHM^.‘:i^ which gained a prize at the Academy
of inferiptions, “ On an Egyptian Colony efta-

ITALY, AND.npIA; 3D1

** blifhed in India it would be worth while to
examine his authorities, and either to overturn
or verify them by fuch higher authorities, as are
now accelfible in thefe provinces. I ftrongly in-
cline to think him right,, and to believe that
Egyptian priefts have adually corn'd from the
I^ilc to the Gy^nga and Tamuvuh which the limb-
w/tw.fmoft aifuredly would. never have left: they
might, indeedj have come either to be inftru£led .
or to'ihftrudt ; but it feems rtiore^ probable, that
they vifited the Surinam of Indta, as the fages of
Greece vifited them, rather to acquii*e than to
impart knowledge ; nor is it likely, that the felE-
fufficient Brahmans would have received them
as their preceptors.

Be all this as it may, I am perfuaded, that a
connexion fubfifted between the old idolatrous
nations of Egypt, India, Greece, and Italy, long
before th«y migrated to their feveral fettlements,
and confequently before the birth of Moses j
but the proof of this propofition will in no de-
gree affed the truth and findity of the Mofaick
Hiftory, which, if confirmation were neceffary,
it would rather tend to confirm. The Divine
Legate, '■ educated by the daughter of a king,
and in all refpeds highly accompliihed, could
not but know the mythological fyftem of Egypt ;
but he muft have* condemned the fuperflitions
of that people,' and defpifed the Speculative

M ON GODS OF GREECE,

abfurdities of their priefts ; though fome of thei**
traditions concerning the ‘ creation and the flood
lArere grounded on truth. Who was better ac-
quainted with the mythology of Athens than
Socrates ? Who more accurately verfed in the
Rabbinical, dodlriues than -Paul.? Who pof-
fefl'ed clearer ideas of all ancient, aftronomical
fyilems than Newton, or of fcAolaftick- me-
taphyficks than Locke? In whom could the
RoniiJI^ Church hav'c had a more formidable
opponent than- in ChilliNgworth, whofe
deep knowledge of its tenets rendered him fo
competent to difpute them ? In a word, who
more exadly knew the abominable rites and
Ihocking idolatry of Canaan than Moses him-
felf ? Yet the learning of thofe great men only
incited them to feek other fources of truth,
piety, and virtue, than thofe in which they had
long been immerfed. There is nq Ihadow
then of a foundation for an opinion, that Mos r.s
borrowed the firll nine or ten chapters of Ge~
nejis from the literature of Egypt: ftill lefs can
the adamantine pillars of our Cbrijlian faith be
moved by t^e refult of any debates on the com-
parative antiquity of the Hindus and Egyptians^
or of any inquiries into the Indian Theology.
Very refpedable natives have aflured me, that
one or two miflionaries have been abfurd enougbi
in their zeal for the converfion of the Gentiles^

ITALY, AND ^DIA. 39^ '

to urge, “ that the Hindus were even now aW
“ moft C^>;^w«^,becauTe their Brahma', Vish-
Nu,\nd Mahe'sa, were no other than the
“ Cljriflicui Trinity a fentence, in which wo
can only doubt, whether folly, ignorance, or
impiety predominates. The \hxQQ powers^ Crea-
tive^ VrefervativCy and Dejlni&ivt^ which the
Hindus exprefe by the triliteral word O m, were
grofsly aferibed by the firft idolaters to the beat^
light, -and jiaj7ic of their miftaken divinity, the

Sun ; and their wiftr fucceflbrs in the Eaft, who

« •

perceived that the Sun was only a created thing,
applied thofe powers to its creator; but the
Indian Triad, and that of Plato, which he
calls the Supreme Good, the Reafon, and the
Soul, are infinitely removed from the holinefs
and fublimity of the dodlrine, which pious
Chrijlians have deduced from texts in the Got
pel, though other Cbrijlians, as pious, openly
profefs their diflent from them. Each feft muft
bejuftified by its own faith and good intentions:
this only I mean to inculcate, that the tenet of
our church cannot without profanenefs be com-
pared with that of the Mindns, whiefi has only
<in apparent refemblance to it, but a very dif*
ferent meaning. One fingular faft, however,
m*uft not be fufifered to pafs unnbticed. That
the name of Crishna, md the general outline
gf his fiory, were long anterior to the birth of

9d4 ON THE QODS OE GREECE, ■

bur Saviour, and probably to the time of Homer,
we know very certainly; yet the celebrated
poem, entitled Bhdgavat, which .contains a
prolix account of his life, is filled with narratives
of a -moft extraordinary kind, but ftrangely va-
riegated and intermixed with poetical decora-
tions : the incarnate deity of the Sanjerit ro-
mance was cradled, as it informs us, among
Herdfmen, but it adds, that , he was educated
among them, and‘ pafled his youth in 'playing
with a party of milkmaids ; a tyrant, at the
time of his birth, ordered all new-born males to
be flain, yet this wonderful ‘babe was preferved
by biting the breaft, inftead of fucking the
poifoned nipple, of a nurfe commiffioned to kill
him; he performed amazing, but ridiculous,
miracles in his infancy, and, at the age of feven
years, held up a fountain on the tip of his
little finger : he faved multitudes partly by his
arms and partly by his miraculous powers ; he
raifed the dead by defeending for that purpofe
to the loweft regions ; he was the meekeft and
beft-tempered of beings, waflied the feet of the
Brdbmans,^ and preached very nobly, indeed,
and fublimely, but always in their favour; he
was pure and chafte in reality, but exhibited
an appeajaijce of exceffive libertinifm, and had
wives or|j®ftreflestoo jnumerbus to be counted;
laftly, he was benevolent and tender, yet fo-

ITAL'!^ And INDIA. 39S

mented and condil£t$d a terrible war 'Diis
motley 4^ory mull induce an opinion that the
fpurious Grofpels, which abounded in the firft
age of Cbrijiianityii • had been brought to India,
and the wildeft parts of them repeated to the
Hindus, who ingrafted them on the old fdble of
Cb'sava, the Apollo of Greece.

As to the general* extenftpn of our pure faith
in Hindujtdn, there are at prefent many fad
obftacles to it. The 'Mujelmdm are already a
fort of heterodox Chrijiians : they are Cbrijiians,
if Locke reafons juftly, becaufe they firmly
believe the immaculate conception, divine cha-
rader, and ntiracles of the Messiah j but they
are heterodox, in denying vehemently his cha-
rafter of Son, and his equality, as God, with the
Father, of whofe unity and attributes they en-
tertain and exprefs the moil &wful ideas ; while
they confider our doflrine as perfedl blafphemy,
and infift, that our copies of the Scriptures have •
been corrupted both by yews and Cbrijiians. '
It will be inexpreifibly difficult to undeceive
them, arid fcarce poifible to diminiih their ve-
neration for Mohammed anjl Alj, ’who were
both very extraordinary men, and the fecond, a
man of unexceptionable morals: the Korun
ihines, indeed, with a borrowed light, fince
moil of its beauties are taken from our Scrip -

VOL. 1. . £ E

W ON THE GODS. OF GREECEi

tur^s; but it has great beauties, and the Mufelindns
will not be convinced that they were boprowed.
The Hindus on the other hand would readily
admit the truth of the Gofpel ; but they con-
tend, that it is pcrfcdly confiftent with their
Sdjlras : the deity, they fay, has appeared in-
numerable times, in many parts of this world
and of all worlds, for the falvation of his crea-
tures y and though we adore him in one ap-
pearance, and they in others, yet we adore, they
fay, the fame Cod, to whom pur fevcral wor-
Ihips, though different in form, are equally ac-
ceptable, if they be fincere in fubftance. We
may alTure ourfelves, that neither Mujelmans
nor Hindus will ever be converted by any
miflion from the Church of Rome, or from any
other church ; and the only human mode, per-
haps, of caufmg fo(;reat a revolution' will be to
tranflatc into, Sanfa'it and Verjian fucii chapters
. of the Prophets, particularly of Isaiah, as are
•indifputably Evangelical, together with one of
the Gofpels, and a plain prefatory difeourfe con-
taining full evidence of the very diftant'ages; in
which the prediflions themfelves, and the hiflory
of the divine perfon predided, were feverally
made publick ; and then quietly to difperfe the
work among the well-educated natives; with
whom if in, due time it failed of producing

ITALY, AKD INDIA. SSt

very falutary fruit by its natural influence _wc
could only lament more than ever the ftrengfh
of prejudice, and the weakncfe of unaiTifted
reafon.

F.ND OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

friatfd by T. DaVUON',
Whitefnar*.